Rainstorms
by Elphiethegreen
Summary: What happens, when Galinda finds out Elphaba's best kept secret during a rainstorm, which put the green woman into great danger?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first story ever and I hope that you all will like it :) I want to say a big thank you to my BETA's Denpa Wave Chick Saki and Throppsicle for their patience ;)**

******Reviews are always welcome!**

**Enjoy!**

**X**

Galinda was in her room in Crage Hall, sorting through her massive pile of clothes that was returned from the laundry. She had some free time that afternoon, and unless she wanted her roommate glaring at her disapprovingly, because Elphaba hated an untidy room, she had to put her washed outfits into her dresser. Galinda wondered how in Oz Elphaba was able to live with such a small amount of wardrobe. There was no piece of clothing that was coordinated, a horrible thought for her.

Their relationship had made some progress during the last weeks, but she could be sure that Elphaba would hold firm to the tidiness of their dorm room. That was fuel for many heated discussions since the start of their first term at Shiz. She thought about their very rocky beginnings and was surprised that despite of the many differences between her and Elphaba, she started to like her.

As she was finished, she looked out of the window and saw big rainclouds appear in the distance. Sure enough there would be rain during the next hour.

"Maybe I should take the chance for a little walk in the rain," Galinda said to herself while she followed the rainclouds with her eyes. Since she was a child, she loved to walk in the rain.

It was very dry during the last weeks and she hadn't a chance to do it in a while. Many of her friends were curious about why she loved rain so much; most of them preferred to stay in.

Just then the first drops started to fall and she squealed, jumped up, grabbed her umbrella and cloak and was out of her dorm, feeling grateful for the mix-up in her sorcery class earlier which brought her this free afternoon. Some students accidently blew up some potions, creating a whole in the ceiling and the teacher was afraid that the roof would come down on them. Galinda found that whole incident very amusing, because the boys, who caused the explosions, were very full of themselves and were bragging all week about their "skills" in potion making.

Z

Elphaba stormed out of her class, furious about her current study partner, who only worked for his own benefit. She loved the life sciences, but it was no fun with that arrogant boy, whose only pastime was to annoy her to death with his comments about her skin. He constantly asked if she studies life science to find out why she was born green. Elphaba was not very interested in why she was green; she was only interested in the problems her skin condition caused in her everyday life. In her fury, she wasn't very attentive to her current surroundings and of course didn't see the incoming rainclouds that would bring Galinda great joy, but were incredibly dangerous for her.

She walked out onto the big grassy area around the lake and stood at the shore for a while, slowly calming down. Elphaba knew that she had to stay calm with her study partner; she didn't want to show him any weakness at all. He was just a little pain in the behind, not worth all that anger.

She was still totally unaware of the approaching danger over her in the sky. As the first drops of water hit her she looked up, panicked, and realized that she was in the middle of a field. There was no shelter for her to hide in. She knew at that moment that her best kept secret about her skin condition would get her into serious trouble.

The rain picked up very fast and Elphaba looked wildly around, firmly clutching her cloak to her body, trying to find an escape route from the harmful situation. There was only one way: to run for her life to the nearby stone benches near the science building. Elphaba ran as fast as she could, but soon her cloak was soaked with water and the tingling and then the burning started to creep over her skin.

She got slower as the pain shot through her whole body and she knew that she would never reach the bench in time. Several times she fell to the ground, soaking herself further. Finally, with all her strength and will, she reached the bench and collapsed under it, drifting into unconsciousness from the pain.

Z

Galinda walked down the path to the lake, enjoying the smell of wet grass and the silence that lay over the campus. There were not many students to make much noise; most of them were safely inside.

She had just turned a corner, and she suddenly stopped in her track because she thought that she saw something unusual in the distance, a small black heap under a bench.

"Hmmm, maybe someone forgot their things under that bench. I will go and take them to Crage Hall," Galinda said and started to walk in the direction. As she neared the bench, she saw something green sticking out of the black fabric that lay on the ground and froze. What was Elphaba doing out here in the rain? Did she fall and hurt herself?

"Elphaba?" she called. No answer. "Elphaba is that you?" Still no answer. Galinda ran up to the bench to see why Elphaba wouldn't answer her. She was very shocked as she saw the unconscious girl lying on the ground with her hands protectively over her face.

Just then she saw the red marks and blisters on Elphaba's hand and part of her face and her heart skipped a beat. What happened to her? Did someone attack her? Galinda knew at least three people who would attack someone as unusual as her green-skinned roommate, because of their strong beliefs; that everything out of the ordinary was a sin.

Her quick thoughts were interrupted as a drop from her umbrella fell onto Elphaba's hand and her skin began immediately to sizzle and blister. Galinda let out a cry of horror as she realized that the water caused Elphaba's burns and she wasn't attacked. She hadn't known that water would have such a horrible effect; Elphaba never told her about that.

Galinda quickly threw her cloak over Elphaba's body tried her best to shield her from the rain with her pink umbrella. She needed to get her to the infirmary as quickly as possible, but she saw no one around who could help her.

Elphaba hadn't moved the entire time and was breathing unevenly; the parts of her green face which were not burned were very pale. Galinda knew that she had to try to wake her, to see how badly here injuries are.

"Elphaba!" she called. "Elphaba please you need to wake up! Please come back to me!"

There was no reaction from the green girl, so Galinda gently touched her shoulder to shake her a little, but immediately realized that her cloak was drenched with water.

"No!" Galinda gasped and in her panic she did the only thing that came into her mind: she drew her wand from her skirt pocket and chanted a drying spell she had learned a few weeks ago in class. Galinda desperately hoped that it would work and was very relieved as she felt the dry fabric of Elphaba's clothes under her hands. She continued to gently shake Elphaba's shoulder and called for her, but wasn't very successful.

Z

_Elphaba was surrounded by flames; she saw no way out of this lethal situation._

_She felt her skin burning, the pain unbearable. She tried to run away from the flames, but as she reached the tiny gap in the ring of fire, it closed its deathly circle completely around her. She was in a trap that was the end of all things._

"Elphaba, can you hear me? Please, you need to wake up!"

_That voice! She knew that voice! It was her roommate's voice that was calling her._

"Elphaba come back to me!" _Elphaba heard the voice again._

"_I am trying! But the flames are everywhere!" Elphaba yelled in the direction of Galinda's voice._

"Just come to me, you can do it!" _came the reply from behind the ring of fire._

_With all her remaining strength, Elphaba began to run towards the voice, not caring that she had to jump right trough the flames. As she reached the other side, she felt intense pain all over her body and she suddenly saw the blurry features of Galinda leaning over her._

_Z_

Galinda nearly gave up to try to wake Elphaba, but suddenly she saw her dark eyes flutter open just a little and heard a loud groan.

"Elphaba? It's me, Galinda" she said as calmly as she could when she saw that Elphaba was looking at her. "You will be safe now, please trust me! I will take you to the infirmary and everything will be all right!"

Elphaba did not answer, but let out another groan of pain and started to slip back into the dark again.

"No Elphaba, please stay awake, please stay with me now!" Galinda cried, but it was too late.

Just then she saw a dorm porter in the distance and shouted at top of her lungs for him.

Fortunately he heard her and came running at top speed down the path.

"What is it Miss? Are you alright?" he panted as he reached Galinda and Elphaba. His gaze fell on Elphaba's lifeless body and gasped. "What happened to her?"

"I can't tell you right now, but we need to get her to the infirmary immediately!" Galinda said frantically.

"Don't worry, I will get her there as fast as I could but I must be very careful because of her burns," the porter said soothingly to Galinda. He gently scooped Elphaba up into his arms and Galinda held the umbrella over her as well as she could. They walked quickly across the deserted campus and reached the building with the infirmary.

"Miss Galinda could you please run into the infirmary and give them a head start? It is crucial now that they treat her very quickly!"

"Of course! I'll run, but please take good care of her!" Galinda pleaded. She ran up the stairs to the first level and burst through the doors of the infirmary. On the right side of the room was a desk with a surprised looking nurse behind it.

"What can I do for you my dear?" she asked Galinda kindly, seeing the obvious distress in the small blonde's eyes.

"I….I need to tell you that our dorm porter is on his way with my injured roommate and she has very severe burns all over her body and…" Galinda said in a rush of words, trying to catch her breath.

The nurse tried to calm the distressed girl down. "Well my dear, we will do everything we can for your roommate, I will call the doctor immediately. Please don't worry and sit down over there while I get everyone ready," she said, pointing to some chairs in the left corner of the room.

Galinda reluctantly sat down on one of the comfortable chairs but couldn't sit still. Just then the dorm porter came in with Elphaba still in his arms and the nurse showed him quickly into an examination room. Galinda tried to follow them, but the nurse shook her head and told her that she had to stay out for now.

Totally stunned, Galinda sank down on the next chair and started to cry.

The stress of the last half hour crept up on her. How could something simple as water have such a horrible effect on the green girl? And why haven't she noticed that?

Z

Dr. Bradburn and Nurse Clare were busy getting everything ready for the impending arrival of their patient.

They didn't know very much about what exactly happened, since Galinda was very upset and was not able to tell the nurse anything specific.

Just then Devyn, the dorm porter, came in and gently laid Elphaba down on the examination table. She was still unconscious, pale and breathing very unevenly.

"Great Oz!" Dr. Bradburn gasped as he saw the burns that were visible on her face and hands. "How did she get these?"

"I don't know, the girl who found her was too upset to tell me anything about that, doctor" Nurse Claire said.

"I asked her but she told me just to hurry up, she would tell us later," Devyn said.

"Okay, that is not crucial to know now, we need to stabilize her first, and then look at how bad she is injured," Dr. Bradburn said and turned to Devyn. "Thank you for bringing her up here."

"Should I alert someone of the incident?" Devyn asked.

"No, that's not necessary right now. We need to have a clear picture of her condition first," Dr. Bradburn replied.

"All right, I will do as you asked," the dorm porter said and hurried out of the door, not seeing and hearing Galinda jumping up and calling after him.

"First thing we have to give her some injections to stabilize her general condition; she must be in great pain right now," Dr. Bradburn said to Nurse Clare. "After that we can look how many parts of her body are affected."

"Alright, I will make a shot ready right away!" the nurse said and hurried into another room.

The Doctor monitored Elphaba's vital signs while he waited for the nurse to return with the shot. He was a little taken aback by her skin color and wondered why he had never seen her on campus before. Nurse Clare returned and handled him the shot. After it was injected, they waited for a moment to monitor Elphaba for any reactions her system might have. After a minute or so, Elphaba's breathing became slower and more even and she was less pale, but not very much.

"I think it is safe to examine her completely now," the doctor said to his head nurse.

She nodded and began to carefully remove the cloak that was still wrapped around Elphaba. After she cut the dress off, they saw the whole extent of the burns. Most parts of Elphaba's back and shoulders and arms were covered with angry red marks, partially with blisters.

Only her stomach and legs fortunately seemed to be less affected.

"I wish I knew what caused this sort of burns, they are under her clothes but they are not burned. This is very weird!" Dr. Bradburn said shaking his head. "First of all, we need to wash her with sterilized tap water to clean the wounds, and then we can put some ointment and bandages to protect the wounds from infection."

"Okay, I will tend to it immediately," the nurse said and hurried out of the door to get the warm water.

Z

Galinda still sat on the chair she sank into earlier and was very concerned about her roommate. After a while the nurse from earlier came out and hurried into another room.

She wondered why nobody would tell her what was happening right now. As Nurse Clare came out with a bowl, she looked back up and asked her what they were doing right now and if everything was all right.

"Oh my dear, I completely forgot you out here, I am so sorry! Your friend suffered several second-degree burns all over her body and we are starting to clean the wounds with warm sterilized water now and then…" the nurse trailed of as she saw the panicked and horrified look on the little blonde's face.

"Oh no! You can't wash her with warm water!" Galinda frantically cried, jumped up and tried to block the door to the examination room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The nurse hasn't suspected this sudden outburst from Galinda and was so startled that she accidently dropped the bowl with water onto the floor.

"My dear girl, what has gotten into you?" Nurse Clare asked a little bit shaken.

"The water!" Galinda said quickly. "It's the water that caused the burns on Elphaba's body!"

"Nonsense girl, water can not burn skin, that is scientifically impossible," the nurse replied "We have no time for such silliness now; I have to refill the bowl and bring it to the doctor."

Nurse Clare picked the bowl up and headed into the other room, but Galinda followed her with tears running down her face. "Please Nurse, this is not a joke, water really burns her skin! I found her out in the rain and saw it with my own eyes!" Galinda said crying harder.

Nurse Clare was very surprised about the reactions of the small blonde and started to finally believe her. "Alright, I believe you; please calm down my dear, but I can't promise you that Dr. Bradburn will do. Now we have a big problem: How can we clean her wounds when she is allergic to water?" the nurse said to Galinda.

That question hit Galinda like a rock. She never saw Elphaba bathing and Elphaba haven't told her about the allergy, but then she remembered something: a wooden box under her roommate's bed. She never saw anything in the bathroom that could be used instead of water, so it was possible that it was in that box.

"Maybe I know where she hides her bathing stuff, but I am not sure," Galinda said to the nurse. "There is a box under her bed that I saw once, that is the only place I can imagine she could hide something from me," she said.

"Why would she hide something like that? It would be much easier for her when people know about her allergy," Nurse Clare said, looking very confused.

"I have no idea why she would hide something like that," Galinda said equally confused.

The nurse pondered this for a moment then turned to Galinda and asked, "Can you run over to your dorm room and fetch this box? Whatever is inside, it could help her."

"Of course, I will be as quick as I can," Galinda said and ran at top speed to the door. Galinda ran across campus and within minutes arrived at their dorm. She sprinted up the stairs, taking two steps at once. It was a bit difficult to unlock the door, because of her shaking hands but finally she managed. When she was inside Galinda ran over to Elphaba's bed and fell onto her knees to look under the bed. At the far end of the bed she saw the box and reached as far as she could to grab it. She managed to get it out from under the bed and didn't bother to look inside.

She ran out of her room and down the hallway to the exit as she heard an overly perky voice calling her name. _Oh not now!_ Galinda thought and turned around, hoping that she could get away as quick as possible.

"Galinda! Oh it is so nice to see you!" a girl from her sorcery class said, quickly stepping up to her.

"Oh hello Jennica, it is nice to see you as well."

"I would be delighted if you want to join me and some other nice girls in the common room to play some games and have some girl talk," Jennica said. "The weather is too dull and cold to walk outside don't you think?"

"Uh… It would be my pleasure, but I have some urgent assignment to do right now. I am sorry. Maybe when I have done this I can join you."

"Oh," Jennica said "Is this assignment so urgent that you can't do it later?"

Galinda kept herself from fidgeting to much as she thought about the time the she lost with this unwelcome interruption. "I am sorry but this is really urgent and I am afraid that I can not do it later today. I have to run now before I am late and the professor will be angry with me."

"Since when are you bothered if a professor is angry at you or not?" Jennica said, confused.

Galinda was getting really angry now and shot a very angry look at her classmate. "Why is everyone thinking that I don't care about anything? You don't really know me then!" Galinda said with fury in her voice and stormed away, leaving a very stunned Jennica behind her. "Now I can finally bring that box into the infirmary and be where I am really needed," Galinda muttered angrily and stormed as fast as she could back to the infirmary.

Z

Dr. Bradburn wondered what kept his head nurse for so long; it was crucial now that they started to clean of Elphaba's wounds.

Just then Nurse Clare came in and hurried over to him. "We have a big problem doctor," she said. "The girl who found her on the grounds told me that the young girl got the burns from the contact with the rainwater. She was very upset as I told her that we would wash the wounds with water."

"Water burns her skin? That is ridiculous!" Dr. Bradburn exclaimed and shook his head. "We will proceed as always and clean the wounds with sterilized water. Elphaba's clothes were completely dry by the way."

"Yes, I wondered about that too, but please trust me Doctor; the girl was very upset and actually cried when I wouldn't believe her. She is actually on her way to fetch something from their room. She thinks that Elphaba has some supplies hidden in a box," the nurse said firmly.

"So you believe her?" Dr. Bradburn said "Then I will trust you and will suppose that Elphaba is indeed allergic to water, as weird as it sounds."

The nurse breathed a sigh of relief. "I hope that her roommate will arrive with the supplies soon, she is gone a very long time now" she said. "I hope that she has no difficulties to find those supplies. We need them to properly treat the poor girl."

At this moment there was a knock on the door and Galinda called from outside.

"You can come in if you want" Dr. Bradburn called.

Galinda tentatively opened the door to the room; she was not sure if she could bear to see all of Elphaba's injuries right now, but she knew that they needed her help so she stepped inside. She went over to Dr. Bradburn and quickly began to introduce herself. "My name is Galinda Upland, and …" she trailed off and gasped with horror as her gaze fell onto Elphaba on the examination table. "Oh sweet Oz! Her injuries are far worse than I thought!" she said and her hands with the box still in it started to tremble.

"I know that it is looking not very nice, but I am positive that we can help your roommate if we have the right supplies. Can you show me that box now please, so I can have a look inside?"

"Of course!" Galinda said and handled the box over to him.

Dr. Bradburn opened the lid and saw up to 15 bottles of oil, all of them labeled and neatly sorted. "Ah! She uses oils to clean herself, why haven't I thought about that?" he said shaking his head. He looked through the wooden box and found a bigger bottle labeled with "mineral oil". "I think I have found something to clean her wounds with. The only danger is that we don't know if these oils are antiseptic. But we must do something now and have no time to experiment," the doctor said.

Galinda was a little dumbstruck as she saw the assortment of oils in the box; why had she never seen Elphaba using them. And why had Elphaba kept all of this completely secret?

Nurse Clare poured some of the oil into a bowl and got some soft cloth from a cabinet. She asked Galinda to sit behind the examination table because she believed that she would be a comforting presence if Elphaba should wake up during the process.

Galinda agreed and took place right behind Elphaba's head. "These burns are really looking horrible," she said.

"I know that it looks worse right now, but with the proper treatment, we will hopefully get a handle on them," the nurse said reassuringly.

"I really hope so, I am very fond of her and don't want her to suffer, Galinda said. _What happened with me that I would say anything like this? A few months ago I loathed this girl to death!_ Galinda thought very confused about her sudden strong sympathetic feelings towards Elphaba.

Dr. Bradburn began to carefully apply the oil onto Elphaba's burns, removing the debris of skin in the process. Soon after he started, Elphaba's vital signs began to get worse again. Her breathing picked up and her heart rate also increased. The doctor was very concerned about that, but waited if the green girl calmed down of her own. But that did not happen.

"Nurse we need another shot for her immediately!" he commanded and the nurse hurried off to get the shot as quick as possible.

Galinda was appalled that Elphaba's condition was getting worse and moved over to her roommate's side, gently taking her hand into her own. She hoped desperately that the shot would help to stabilize her.

Z

_Elphaba managed to escape the deathly ring of fire and saw for just a moment the soft features of Galinda's face and heard her voice telling her that everything will be alright._

_But Elphaba couldn't hold her eyes open and found herself near the flames again._

_As she tried to move away from them, the ring opened and the flames suddenly began to change into figures she could not describe. They began to move towards her and she panicked and ran away as fast as her hurting body allowed. But as fast as she ran, the flame figures came nearer and nearer._

_Her heart was beating rapidly and she was out of breath. Nobody was there to rescue her; she would have to die painfully in the flames. She had no strength left to run away and fell onto the ground. She waited for the inevitable to come._

_Suddenly the heat from the flames was gone and there was silence around her. Elphaba lifted her head a bit to see why the flames haven't approached her and saw instead Galinda, holding out her hands to her._

"_Please come back to us Elphaba!" she said and came to her and took her hand. At this moment she was pulled back into consciousness again and looked into the very concerned eyes of her little blond roommate._

Z

As Nurse Clare returned with the required shot, Dr. Bradburn immediately administered it into one of Elphaba's arms. He hoped that it would be enough to help his patient's body to recover.

Galinda still had Elphaba's hand in hers and called for her like she did when she found her first. "Please come back to us Elphaba! _Please don't leave me!"_ she silently added.

"Her heart rate is slowing down doctor," the nurse said as she checked her pulse.

"Miss Galinda would you please try to call her again, it seems to help a lot?" Doctor Bradburn asked.

"Of course doctor," Galinda replied. After repeatedly calling her name, the blonde felt Elphaba's hand squeezing hers and gasped. "Elphaba, can you hear me? Please open your eyes for me!" she said.

"Do you think she's awake?" the doctor asked.

"I felt her squeezing my hand, so I think yes" Galinda said.

Just then, Elphaba opened her eyes again and looked directly into Galinda's bright blue ones. She groaned from pain like she did earlier.

"Elphaba! I am so glad you are awake!" Galinda said and stroked the back of her hand to comfort her a little bit.

Elphaba was getting more awake and became slowly aware of what happened around her. As she saw the doctor and the nurse she started to panic. She tried to squirm away from their hands, horror was written all over her face.

"Elphaba everything will be alright, there is no need to panic right now," Galinda said to her soothingly and carefully stroked her hand again.

"No doctors! Please no doctors!" Elphaba managed to whisper very quietly.

"What did you say?" Galinda asked her in response.

"You must not be frightened young lady; we will not harm you in any way. We all want to help you to feel more comfortable," Dr. Bradburn said moving into Elphaba's line of sight.

Instead of helping to soothe her, it unfortunately added more to her panic.

"Galinda please make them go away," Elphaba whimpered and tried to squirm away again but the nurse gently held her in place.

"Elphaba they need to clean your burns so they can start to heal."

"No water! They can't use water!" Elphaba whispered frantically.

"They know this already and they are using your mineral oil to do it, so please calm down. It's not good for you to be so upset right now."

After that Elphaba seemed to calm down a little and leaned back again and closed her eyes as she started to feel the intense pain all over her body. Nurse Clare constantly watched her vital signs while Dr. Bradburn was working on her wounds. "You must be in unduly pain right now; we will give you some analgesic to lessen it, so we can continue with the treatment of the wounds," Nurse Clare said and went to a cabinet to get the required pill.

"This is a fast working analgesic; it will hopefully kick in within five minutes," the doctor said as he assisted the nurse with sitting Elphaba a little bit up so that she was able to take the pill with some tea. Although they moved her very little, the pain was almost unbearable for the green girl and she turned a very pale green in the process.

"The analgesic will make her very drowsy, so there is a chance that she will sleep very quickly. This will lessen the stress she is feeling enormously," Dr. Bradburn said quietly turning to Galinda who was very upset to see her roommate in so much pain.

"I hope that she will be alright, it was so frightened for me to find her on the ground under that bench."

"Understandable. When we have time you need to tell me the whole story, because we wondered about something that came up during the initial examination," the doctor said.

"I will explain everything to you then, I am aware of the lack of information you got from me about what happened."

Elphaba was indeed getting drowsy as soon as the pill started to work and the pain that throbbed all over her body lessened a little bit. She started to fall into a thick haze and managed to whisper to Galinda before she drifted of: "Please don't allow any experiments on me, promise me!"

Galinda was a little taken aback by this and was not sure what she should respond to this at first. "Of course not, I won't let that happen, you are very safe here," she replied at last hoping that would help.

When Elphaba was asleep, the doctor continued to tend to her wounds. Her shoulders and arms were burnt most and looked very bad. On her face were also burns on her forehead and cheeks, which were angry red but not blistering. Nurse Clare was working at a table at the other side of the room. She mixed some powder into a creamy substance.

"What are you mixing for Elphaba?" Galinda asked.

"I am mixing some aloe powder into some cool cream to cover the wounds with. We hope that it will work fine on her," the nurse answered. As she saw the concerned look on Galinda's face she added, "Of course we will test the cream on a small part of Elphaba's forearm first; we don't want to hurt her further." At this Galinda relaxed a little bit.

Doctor Bradburn turned his attention to his head nurse and asked her if the cream is ready now.

"Yes it is ready to be tested," the nurse said and walked over to them again.

Galinda held her breath as she gently dabbed a tiny amount of the cream onto the green girls forearm. After a few seconds the cream was removed to reveal a totally unharmed spot of green skin. "It works!" Galinda said very relieved that there would be no problem with the further treatment of her roommate's injuries.

"Very good, now we can coat her burns very thickly with this cream. It has cooling and healing properties and has also an analgesic in it. I am afraid that this analgesic will not dampen all her pains and we need to give her more in form of pills," Dr. Bradburn said to Galinda.

"How long do you think her burns will need to heal Doctor?" Galinda asked.

"I think they will need up to four weeks to heal, but I am not sure if her skin color will affect this or not," the doctor said. "Your friend here has some big blisters we need to puncture in order to relieve the wound from pressure. Then we need to cover them with the cream like the rest of her burns and put them into sterile bandages. It is very important that she gets no infection."

"Poor Elphaba, she will be out for a while don't you think?" Galinda said sadly. She knew how much she hated to miss just one class.

"She will need to be here at least for three days, so that we can be sure she gets no infection and that her circulatory system is strong enough. She unfortunately got a big shock to her system due to her injuries," Dr. Bradburn said.

"Is she in danger right now?" Galinda asked concerned.

"Not right now, she was in a dangerous condition earlier, but we managed to stabilize her for now. It was important to relieve her from the immense pain burns like hers cause."

Galinda was very sad that Elphaba has to suffer so much and thought about a word the doctor used earlier: your friend … Just this morning she had thought about her relationship with her odd green, sulky and sarcastic roommate. She never dreamt that she would consider her a friend, but it sounded not bad as she heard that word. Maybe this rainstorm will change both of their lives forever.

During Galinda's musings about friendship, Doctor Bradburn and Nurse Clare started to puncture the big blisters and coat the wounds with the aloe cream. They covered them with special sterile bandages designed for the treatment of burns, so that they would not stick on them. The only part of Elphaba's body they left out was her face, because it would heal better without them.

When they were finished, Elphaba looked more white than green with all the bandages all over her upper body. Some burns on her feet were also treated, but they were not too bad because of her heavy boots she wore all of the time. Galinda liked this boots not very much until today …

"We are finished now," Nurse Clare said to Galinda and patted the still upset looking girl on her shoulders. "We will bring her to a hospital room now where she can be looked at if the need arises. She will probably be out for a few hours and that is very necessary for her body to recover from the shock."

"Can I stay with her? I don't want to be her alone when she awakes. She seems to have big problems with being here," Galinda said, hoping she was allowed to stay. After all what happened, she was not ready to leave Elphaba yet.

"Of course you can stay with her, but we would you to clarify something we wondered about," Doctor Bradburn said.

"How can I help you?" Galinda asked.

"We are curious why Elphaba's clothes were relatively dry when your dorm porter brought her in earlier," the doctor said.

"Oh that! There is a simple answer to it: I used a drying spell in my panic when I saw the effects of the water drops on her skin."

"Ah! Why haven't I thought about something like that, after all we train sorcerers at Shiz," he laughed, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Galinda was very relieved that she didn't do nothing wrong when she found Elphaba and relaxed considerably. Doctor Bradburn gently took the still sleeping green girl into his arms and carried her over into a friendly decorated room at the end of the short hallway.

He gently laid her down on the only bed that was in there and settled her on soft pillows.

"I hope it is soft enough for her back to lie on, we can settle her on her stomach should it be too uncomfortable for her when she awakes," Nurse Clare said and covered her up with a thick comforter. "I will leave some tea for both of you, please call us when she awakes and if anything happens," the nurse said.

"Of course I will do that," Galinda replied and settled herself into a comfy char beside Elphaba's bed. After the doctor and nurse left, she looked at her sleeping friend and took her green hand again. "I will look after you Elphaba, don't be afraid," she said while some tears silently ran down her cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

Dr. Bradburn and Nurse Clare were sitting together in the doctor's office after they brought Elphaba into the hospital room.

"I am very concerned about Elphaba", the doctor said. "We must find out how we can treat her further properly, without hurting her anymore in the process. If we use the mineral oil, there is a big risk that the wounds get infected."

Nurse Clare sighed and looked trough Elphaba's file which she had requested from the administration earlier and that was just brought by a messenger. "There is not a single word about that strange allergy in her file; the medical record is missing too. I wonder why they allowed her to study here at Shiz without a complete file, every student is required to give a medical report, so that we are able to treat them properly in case of an emergency," the nurse said, looking very confused.

"That is a good question, but I don't think that we will get one fast enough," Dr Bradburn said. "It would be best when Elphaba herself would tell us the most important details, but she will be out for a few hours for now. Unfortunately her roommate didn't know anything at all about her either."

"Maybe Elphaba has her reasons to hide certain things, but it is very dangerous as we saw this afternoon. I can't imagine what would have happened if Galinda hasn't found her out there, the burns would be life threatening." Nurse Clare shuddered at the thought.

"Yes they definitely would be life threatening," the doctor agreed. "It must be very hard for her to live with such an allergy, to be always in fear of rain."

"Well she managed to survive 18 years with it, so I don't think that she will see it like that anymore," Nurse Clare said. "I will look after her now and get Galinda something to eat. She missed dinner and must be very hungry by now."

"Alright, I will try to find out who makes the oils Elphaba is using; maybe we can find a way to clean her wounds with a more antiseptic oil," Doctor Bradburn said.

Z

Galinda was still sitting beside Elphaba's bed in the hospital room. The stress from the last few hours was creeping up on her and she cried silent tears while she was still holding Elphaba's bandaged hands. She hoped that Elphaba was feeling no pain right now and was able to rest.

Since the doctor and nurse left the room, Elphaba hadn't moved a muscle. Her breathing was relatively easy and she had a peaceful expression on her face. Still Galinda feared that this could change any second.

Galinda thought about one sentence Elphaba said earlier:"_Please don't allow any experiments on me, promise me!"_

What was the meaning of this? It was clear to Galinda that Elphaba was having difficulties with the presence of doctors from her reaction after she woke up in the examination room. What has they done to her in her childhood that would explain such a reaction.

"I hope she will be able to tell me about it_," _Galinda muttered to herself. "But why should she do that? We were not even friends before today; we have not even talked very much to each other!"

Elphaba's sarcastic comments annoyed her to death since they had to live together at the beginning of their first year at Shiz. But when she looked back, there were also little episodes, where Elphaba helped her with her homework and they seemed to get along very well. This happened during the last weeks and they began to respect one another more and more.

_But is that enough that she would tell me her best-kept secrets?_ Galinda thought.

There was a soft knock on the door and Nurse Clare came in, holding a tray with some sandwiches on it in her hands. "You must be very hungry my dear, you missed dinner and it it's getting late," the nurse said and went over to Galinda and put the tray on a little table that was near the bed.

"Oh I am not very hungry right now," Galinda said and didn't bother to look at the tray.

"Galinda you need to eat something. You can't look after your friend properly when you starve yourself."

"Okay, I will eat something if I must," Galinda sighed and took a sandwich from the tray.

"Good girl!" the nurse said. "Did something happen since we left you?"

"No, Elphaba hasn't moved a muscle the whole time and I don't think that she is in pain at the moment," Galinda said.

"Very good, I suggest that you relax a little bit for now. I know it was very hard for you to see your friend's injuries and understand completely that you are very concerned about her. But as I said before, you can't help her if you are too exhausted."

"I try to do as you ask, but I am afraid to nap in and miss her waking up."

"Yes I know that your fear this, but I think you will wake up in time if Elphaba awakes. Should this happen before I look after you again, please call us and we will come immediately. We don't know how much pain she will feel and must give her more analgesics if necessary."

"Okay I will do as you ask," Galinda said and sipped from her tea.

"Alright, do you require something else right now?"

"No thank you, I think all I need right now is that Elphaba will be okay and she is not in danger."

"No she is not in immediate danger. All we need to know is how we proceed with the treatment of her wounds in spite of her allergy. We need a more antiseptic oil for her so that the possibility of an infection is lesser. We are afraid that the mineral oil we used today can not hinder the process," Nurse Clare said.

Galinda's eyes brightened up as a thought hit her. "Nurse, maybe I can help you with this problem! My father is an apothecary; I think he can make some antiseptic oil for Elphaba. If you give me some notepaper, I can send him a wire and ask him."

"Hmmm we could of course ask our apothecary in Shiz too, but I think he will ask some questions about why we need antiseptic oil when we could use something else. To explain Elphaba's allergy to him would be hard, because he is very old-fashioned and would not believe us. So your idea is not bad, I will get you some notepaper and you can write this wire to your parents."

"Thank you! Daddy can really help her; he is a very good apothecary and will do everything to ensure that Elphaba has everything she requires."

"I will return in a few minutes and bring you fresh tea also," the nurse said and hurried out of the room. She returned after five minutes with the notepaper and a carafe of tea and handed it to Galinda.

Galinda quickly explained the situation to her father and read her note trough.

_Dear Popsicle,_

_Don't worry I am okay. I need your help with something. My roommate got burned today and requires a special antiseptic oil to clean her wounds. I can't explain you why we can not use commonly used things in this short time, so I hope that what I tell you now will be enough. She is allergic to water and got her burns from the rainstorm today. She uses oils to clean herself and we don't know much more than that. I hope that you can make some special oil for her, they used plain mineral oil from her to clean the wounds at first, but the Doctor is afraid that they get infected more easily with it._

_I miss you and Momsie very much! Please give her a hug from me. I will explain all of this more in depth to you later when I can write more._

_Your Galinda_

Galinda was satisfied with it and gave it to the waiting nurse.

_Oh Elphaba, please don't be angry with me for asking my father for help! _Galinda thought.

Elphaba seemed to have her reasons to hide her allergy from everyone.

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. She seemed to have napped in because as she opened her eyes an hour was over. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. Suddenly she heard a faint whimper from Elphaba. She looked at her to see if Elphaba was awake or just moving in her sleep and the movement caused her pain.

She heard the whimper again and gently took Elphaba's hand again. "Shhh Elphaba, everything is all right," Galinda tried to soothe her. Just then Elphaba opened her eyes and turned her head into the direction of Galinda's voice.

"Galinda," she whispered, her voice hoarse, and squeezed the blonde's hand a little. "Are you real?"

"Of course silly, I am very real," Galinda chuckled.

"Where am I? Why does my whole body hurt like hell?"

"You are in the infirmary, don't you remember? You were surprised by the rainstorm earlier and got burned rather badly."

Elphaba's memory quickly came back and the realization where she was made her panicking again.

"What! I am in the infirmary? I don't want to be here, I can not handle doctors!" Elphaba tried to get out of bed, but she cried out in pain and sank back into the cushions. She was rather pale from the pain.

"Elphaba don't panic and please calm down, nobody will harm you here," Galinda said soothingly, gently touching Elphaba's upper arm. Elphaba yanked her arm away and yelped in pain from the sudden movement.

"Careful you hurt yourself even more. You have burns all over your body; try to hold still, it will not hurt so much if you do."

"I want to be out of here Galinda; I can not bear to see a doctor!"

"Elphaba please hear me out: I heard your request earlier to not let anyone hurt you and don't allow any experiments. I don't know why you have such fear to be in the presence of medical staff, but you are too badly injured to be in our room alone. Please let me call for the Nurse so that she can look after you, I promised her to tell her when you are awake."

Elphaba nodded and sighed. Galinda went to the door and looked if she could see the nurse. When she didn't saw her she called down the hallway, hoping the nurse would hear her.

Fortunately the nurse heard her the first time she called and came quickly over to her.

"Is she awake?" Nurse Clare asked.

"Yes but she is still very unhappy to be here and started to panic again after she awoke and realized where she is. She seems to be very afraid of doctors, I don't know why. She tried to get out of bed, but failed because of the pain."

"Oh dear, I hope we can lessen her fear, but she needs to stay here. As you witnessed, she will be in much pain if she tries to get up now."

Nurse Clare turned to the door and opened it. She saw the fear in Elphaba's eyes as soon as she stepped into the room. "Hello Elphaba, I am Nurse Clare and am in charge of you here," the nurse said and walked over to her, Galinda following close behind. "Your roommate informed me that you awoke 10 minutes ago and that you are a little bit frightened"

_A little bit is a big understatement,_ Galinda thought.

Elphaba looked warily at the nurse and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself a little bit.

"Hello I am Elphaba, but you should know this already," Elphaba said.

Nurse Clare chuckled and replied: "Of course I know your name by now. Don't be afraid of me, I am not out to hurt you and so does the doctor. So please tell me how you are feeling at the moment."

"My body hurts all over and every movement is like hell," Elphaba said, still looking wary.

"Well you received very bad burns all over your body and we needed to puncture some of them, these will hurt you most at the moment. We had some problems to find out how to clean your wounds without damaging your skin further, but thanks to Galinda here we were able to find a solution, "Nurse Clare said.

"How did you clean them?" Elphaba asked.

"We used some of your mineral oil, you can ask your roommate about that later, now I need to go and fetch some new analgesic for you."

"How long must I stay here? I don't want to miss too many classes." Elphaba asked.

"It depends on your condition during the next few days; I think you must stay here for at least four days"

"WHAT? FOUR DAYS?" Elphaba cried and shot up into a sitting position. She completely forgot that moving was not a good idea right know and regretted it immediately as the pain shot through her whole body like thousand needles. She gasped and cried out in pain, her breathing becoming labored. Galinda gently put her hand on her arm and guided her back down onto the pillow.

"Please calm down Elphaba, I know that you dislike missing any class at all, but you can't go back yet, they will have their reasons," Galinda said.

"Galinda it is not just missing my classes, I told you already that I cannot bear to be here," Elphaba whispered.

The nurse hadn't heard Elphaba. "She is right dear, you can barely move without feeling intense pain and we need to control your wounds regularly. We can not risk any infections here. Let me fetch some stronger analgesic for you, so you can be more comfortable. I will be right back girls," Nurse Clare said hurrying out of the room.

Elphaba closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. She wished that all of this was just a nightmare and she would wake up anytime soon. She never thought that she would get into a situation like that, being surprised by a rainstorm. That never happened in her 18 years of life. Yes she got burned on few occasions, but not so bad like today. Before she could think more, the nurse came back, this time with Doctor Bradburn following behind her.

As soon as Elphaba caught sight of Doctor Bradburn, she started to tremble. She looked like she wanted to try to flee again. Galinda gently laid her hand on her shoulder again, trying to calm her.

"Elphaba nothing will happen to you, you are safe here," Galinda said.

"My dear, please try to calm down! I assured you earlier that the doctor will not harm you in any way," Nurse Clare said.

Nothing of this helped and Elphaba started to gasp for air, trembling violently now.

"She's having a panic attack! We must try to get her out of it as quick as possible," the nurse said.

"I will try to get her attention, I hope it will work," Galinda said franticly. "Elphaba, just look at me please, you have to breathe my friend, just breathe! Trust me Elphaba, everything will be alright!" She saw that Elphaba was looking at her but she wasn't calming down. She got paler and paler with the lack of air.

"I am here to protect you; I would sell my entire wardrobe just to ensure that nobody will harm you." This last sentence from Galinda seemed to get Elphaba's attention immediately, simply because what Galinda just said was so absurd, that she has to hear it.

_It worked! My little out of character display finally got her attention!_ Galinda sighed and let out a little breath of relief.

Doctor Bradburn was standing close by the whole time, but he could do nothing to help the very frightened green girl who was in his care. _What in the hell of Oz have they done to her in her childhood to cause such a reaction? This is not a normal reaction to an examination; a slight fear would be understandable but this panic attack is totally unusual, _he thought to himself. He saw that Galinda finally seemed to get Elphaba's attention and was curious if the girl could help her friend to escape from the panic.

"I am glad that I have your attention now my friend, so I will be very glad if you try to breathe with me. That's it, slowly in and out, just with my own rhythm, you will be alright," Galinda said in a soothing tone. Finally Elphaba seemed to calm down and caught her breath. Four minutes after her panic attack hit her, she breathed nearly in sync with her roommate.

Nurse Clare and the Doctor exchanged a relieved glance.

"I am so afraid, please don't leave me," Elphaba whispered, shaking slightly.

"Of course I'll stay with you," Galinda said and gently stroked Elphaba's cheek, well away from her burns. Elphaba flinched a bit and Galinda was afraid that she had hurt her roomy. "Oh I am so sorry; I didn't want to hurt you!"

"No you didn't, I am just very unused to someone touching me," Elphaba said quietly.

"Can I come near you Elphaba?" Doctor Bradburn asked. "I would leave you alone but it is necessary for me to look after your general condition. I know that you are very frightened. I understand completely that there are possibly things in your past that are responsible for your reactions and the cause of your panic."

Elphaba was very exhausted from the panic attack and hasn't the strength to fight against the examination any more. She gave a slight nod and closed her eyes briefly. Galinda was very relieved that the worst was over for now and that Elphaba would allow to be examined.

She sat down in her chair again and watched as Doctor Bradburn came onto Elphaba's side.

"I will explain to you everything I will do during my examination, don't hesitate to stop me if you feel uncomfortable. First of all: How much pain are you feeling at the moment? Is it tolerable?"

"Every movement hurts like hell, the burns are throbbing; I don't think that I can bear it any longer," Elphaba said.

"Alright, that will not be a big problem. We can provide you with a long-lasting analgesic to lessen your pain. I will look for the general condition of your body now. I have to touch you in order to see if you need more fluid. There are two big problems we have with burns: first the losses of fluid caused from the damage to the skin and second an infection of the wound," the Doctor said and gently touched Elphaba's arm to feel how elastic her skin was. At first she slightly pulled back, but then tried to relax.

"It seems that you indeed need more fluid. We must see what you can drink in bigger amounts; we gave you tea earlier is this okay?"

"I am afraid that I can't drink tea, at least very much of it. It tends to burn my throat like water does. But I can drink milk and apple cider as much as I want," Elphaba answered.

"That is okay as long as you are able to drink a lot of it. Due to your allergy we can not give you an infusion. That would be the regular procedure in your case. But I warn you, you should feel weak the first time, because you will be not able to compensate all with drinking," the doctor said.

"Must I really stay so long here? Nurse Clare said I have to for at least four days."

"I am afraid so, you will see that we have only your best interests and health in our mind. Our biggest problem is the cleaning of your wounds, that mineral oil we used to clean them will not be sufficient in the long run. Do you have any oil with antiseptic properties?"

Elphaba sighed. "No I haven't any oils with antiseptic properties. To be true, nobody cared to give me something like that. It is a very complicated story and I can't tell you all of it right now."

Galinda had observed everything with a watchful eye the whole time. "I have enlisted the help of my father who is an apothecary. He would be able to create an appropriate oil for her."

"You did what?" Elphaba asked stunned, not knowing if she should be angry or grateful.

"Yes I wanted to help and you need that oil, I don't want you to have a infection. Please don't be angry with me!" Galinda was at the brink of tears.

Elphaba reached out for the blonde's hand. "Please calm down Galinda, I'm not angry with you. You just wanted to help, I see that now. When do you think will we get an answer from you father?"

"I don't know, I hope we will receive it tomorrow afternoon, he got a wire from me," Galinda said.

"Very well, now I have to tend to another patient and will see to you in the morning Elphaba." Doctor Bradburn said and went out of the door. As soon as he was gone, Elphaba relaxed considerably.

Nurse Clare went to the side of Elphaba's bed and set a tray with carafes of milk and cider down on the bedside table. The girls hadn't noticed that she was gone while they have talked with each other.

"I have brought you your analgesic too, please take it now, it will lessen you pain immensely. Please try to drink as much as you can before you feel the need to sleep again. It could be that this kind of analgesic will make you drowsy too, just like the one we gave you the first time. If there is anything you two need, just pull that cord beside the bedside table, it rings in my office."

"We will do that," Elphaba said. She took the pill from the nurse and swallowed it with some cider. She tried to get more comfortable, but the pain on her back was too much to do so.

"The analgesic will kick in soon my dear, try to relax a little," Nurse Clare said. "Galinda, would you please come out with me for a moment please?"

"Of course," Galinda said and followed the nurse out into the hallway.

"Galinda I am a little concerned about you. Please don't try to stay up all night to look after your friend. I know that you don't want to go to your room now, but you need to sleep. We can provide you with a cot to lie down in Elphaba's room if it is okay with you."

"I will do as you ask as long as I can stay with her. But I will need to get some things from my room, should I go now?"

"Yes this would be the best time. Just try to be quick, because I don't think that Elphaba will be comfortable here without you."

"I agree with you, I will run over and grab some necessities and will hopefully be back in 20 minutes or so. Just let me go in and tell Elphaba that I am away for a short time." Galinda quietly opened the door to Elphaba's room, afraid to startle her. "Elphaba, I need to leave you for a moment to get some things from our room. Do you want me to get anything for you?"

Elphaba looked frightened again as she heard that Galinda would leave her alone here. Galinda saw this and tried to reassure her. "Elphaba I will be back soon and nobody will approach you while I am gone. They know that you are frightened, your panic attack made that more than clear."

"Okay, I am selfish. You are here with me since you found me; you must not stay to keep me company."

"Don't be silly Elphaba; you are not in the least selfish! I'll be back in about 20 minutes, until then don't worry about the doctor or the nurse, they will stay away, and I will make sure that they do."

"That is alright, just try to be back quickly," Elphaba said.

"I will be right back, remember to pull the cord if you are not feeling well while I'm away," Galinda said and grabbed her cloak and hurried out of the door.

As soon as she was out of the door Galinda ran to the exit and over the campus to their room again, hoping that nobody would see her. A distraction like the one with Jennica earlier was absolutely not welcome at the moment. Thankfully, there was no one outside of her dorm because of the late time and she made it to room 22 undisturbed.

She quickly got some essentials for a night away and looked around the room for something she could bring her roommate. Finally she collected a poetry book from her nightstand and put it into her small bag along with her other things she wanted to take with her. After a final check Galinda left the room and hurried back to the infirmary.

Z

As soon as Galinda left the room, Elphaba felt anxious again. She knew that no one would harm her here, but in this regard her mind was not very cooperative. Images from her past appeared before her inner eyes, images she wished that she would not have to see ever again. The panic started to rise again and she fought with all of her might against it.

"Elphaba Thropp, you will stop that this instant!" she chastised herself, but all of that didn't help and she started to tremble again. She lost control over her breathing and reached blindly for the pulling cord, but was not able to reach it.

Z

As Galinda was walking over the campus, she suddenly had an uneasy feeling. Something must be wrong with Elphaba! "Oh no!" Galinda said and started to run. When she reached the entrance to the infirmary she burst through the doors and ran down the hall into Elphaba's room. Her worst fears came true as she saw Elphaba gasping for air again. She quickly went over to her.

"Elphaba I am here! Everything is alright, just look at me; we will do it like earlier. Breath with me, slowly in and out."

When Elphaba saw Galinda rushing through the door, the images started to fade away and she heard her roomies calming and soothing voice. She felt immediately drawn to her voice, encouraging her to breath with her. She managed to catch her breath again and was soon breathing nearly normal. Elphaba felt a stinging on her face and realized that she was crying.

She tried to wipe them away, but was not very successful because her arms hurt too much.

"Oh Elphaba, wait I can do that," Galinda said and got a soft cloth from the bedside table. She gently wiped the tears away and stroked her cheek. "I am glad that you got over this panic attack too, I hope that you must not suffer another again."

"It is this place that triggers all the bad memories from my childhood. I am afraid that I can not stop them as long I have to stay here. I can't tell you what happened a long time ago right now, please don't ask me."

"Oh Elphaba it is absolutely okay. Please drink something, you really need it." She got up and poured some cider into a glass and handed it to the still pale looking green girl. Like before, Elphaba had problems with raising her arms and Galinda supported her with drinking.

"I feel like a baby!" Elphaba sighed.

"You are hurting and I won't let you suffer, so no protesting!"

Elphaba gave a small attempt of a smile, but even this movement hurt in her face. She started to get very sleepy from the analgesic and the stress. "I think I need to sleep again," Elphaba said.

"I recommend that my friend, you will hopefully feel better after a good amount of sleep." She helped Elphaba to cover up properly and sat back in her comfy chair, watching her roommate drifting off to sleep. "I hope you can sleep untroubled," she said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Sorry for the long wait! I needed to sort out some issues that came from writing the first story ever. I hope that I will update more often now.**

**I want to dedicate this chapter to the amazing Wicked Cast from Germany. They will play their last show today(in our time).Thank you for the great time! I will miss you!**

**Thanks to my reviewers, I promise that you will hear more about Elphaba's past. **

**So, enough talking, enjoy the new chapter!**

**X**

Galinda was exhausted. She was sitting on her cot, which the nurse had recently brought in. The last couple of hours had not been easy for the sensitive blonde. She was very proud of herself being able to show her strong side to Elphaba. Galinda always thought that Elphaba never saw more than a social butterfly in her. To be true, she wanted to be seen as such by most students on campus.

What confused her most was the fact that she really cared for her odd green roommate and that she didn't want to be so cruel to Elphaba like she had been up until this very day. But what had happened to her to realize this? Was it pity for a girl who was rejected from everyone?

_No__, I never pitied her before, so this is not making any sense. It must be something else, but I cannot figure it out yet!_ Galinda thought.

She rubbed her forehead, moaning a little. Since Nurse Clare had left her about half an hour ago, the headache that started a while ago was getting much stronger.

Galinda stood up to get some water from the little table. All of sudden she got dizzy and her knees went weak. She tried to reach the table to catch herself, but failed and fell to the floor, while everything was getting blurry.

An intense pain shot trough her head and she felt nauseous. _What in the hell of Oz is going on?_ Galinda thought while trying to focus on something in the room, but it was almost impossible, because of the waves of pain that coursed through her head. Galinda knew that she needed help. Waking Elphaba was not an option; she would be hard to wake because of the effects from her medicine.

With all of her strength, she tried to rob towards the bedside table where the pulling cord was. She managed to get near it when a new wave of pain stopped her, making her moan again. Cold sweat was on her forehead and she was trembling. "Come on Galinda, you need to get to that table!" she muttered. After a moment the pain ebbed off and she finally reached her destination and pulled the cord. Then all went black and she crumpled to the floor again, losing her consciousness.

X

Nurse Clare sat in her office and updated Elphaba's file. She knew that, given the circumstances, her charge was as fine as she could be and would sleep for a long time.

After the intense panic attack, the doctor had decided to give her a stronger analgesic, which also served as a sleep aid. She was positive that this would lessen the immense stress for Elphaba.

_I am more concerned about Galinda; she appeared to be stressed too, although she tried to hide it. She is constantly watching over her friend. _She thought.

She had made Galinda promise that she would sleep, but she was not sure if she would hold on to it.

The nurse went over to a little kitchen area and got herself a cup of coffee.

She was on her way back to her desk when she heard the bell for Elphaba's room ringing.

"Oh, this is weird, I don't think that Elphaba is awake yet," she muttered and hurried out of the door and down the hallway. When she opened the door to her charges' room, her gaze fell directly on Elphaba, who was sound asleep. Very confused, Nurse Clare looked around, but didn't see Galinda.

Just then her gaze fell towards the ground beneath Elphaba's bed and saw her lying there, her right arm still stretched out towards the table.

"Galinda?" she called and rushed over to her and crouched down. "Galinda, can you hear me?" There was no response from the little blonde. Her breathing was shallow and her face was very pale.

"Oh no my dear, I told you to rest but you obviously stayed awake", the nurse said quietly.

She tried to wake Galinda up, by gently patting her cheek wile she called her name, but nothing happened. Sighing, she got up and went over to a cabinet and took some smelling salts out of it. She held them under Galinda's nose and she heard Galinda take a deep breath and began to stir. Nurse Clare heard a little groan and called her name again. Finally Galinda opened her eyes and tried to sit up, but the nurse stopped her.

"Galinda dear, please stay as you are for a moment. You were unconscious for at least five minutes. I found you here after I heard the bell in my office. What happened?"

Galinda whimpered as a new wave of pain shot trough her head again. Nurse Clare noticed that the girl went paler than she was before and laid her hand on her back.

"I don't know what happened. I had a slight headache that started around the time you brought me the cot. When I got up to get myself some water, I all of sudden felt very dizzy and the headache got worse. My knees went weak and I had difficulties to reach the bedside table. I don't know what happened after I pulled the cord, everything went black. The next thing I knew were you calling my name", Galinda said.

"All right, do you feel much pain right now?" Nurse Clare asked sounding concerned.

"Yes, the headache is still very intense and my vision is blurry."

"Okay Galinda. I will call for Doctor Bradburn, so that he can check you over. Do you think that you are able to stand up and walk over to the cot?"

"I can try," Galinda said and managed to sit up. But as soon as she was upright, the nausea came back full force and she got very dizzy again. "Oh no! I don't think that I can stand up, I feel very nauseous and dizzy", Galinda said sounding distressed.

"All right, take a deep breath and try to calm down. Just lean your back onto the bed and relax. I will call Doctor Bradburn and will be with you again in no time," Nurse Clare said and went to the door.

Galinda just then realized that she had totally forgotten about Elphaba. "Nurse Clare?" Galinda called quietly. The nurse turned around. "Yes?"

"Did Elphaba wake up while I was out? I must have made some noise after all."

The nurse shook her head in spite of herself. Galinda was still too focused on the wellbeing of her roommate. "No dear, Elphaba was sound asleep when I came in and she will most likely not wake up even if you would dance around the room. Please don't worry too much about her; we need to look after you right now. I will be right back," Nurse Clare said and closed the door quietly behind her.

Galinda leaned against Elphaba's bed. She heard the green girl breathing evenly and was satisfied that she was fine. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. Her headache was less intense at the moment. She was very relieved that she didn't wake Elphaba up.

After a short while Nurse Clare and Doctor Bradburn entered the room.

"I heard that you fainted and are suffering from bad headaches", the doctor said, taking Galinda's hand and checking her pulse.

"Yes. I don't know why the headache got so bad. It increased when I stood up to go and fetch something to drink." Galinda closed her eyes briefly as a new but lighter wave of pain coursed though her head. This didn't stay unnoticed by the doctor.

"We need to get you to your cot so that you can lie down comfortably. Then I will be able to examine you further," Doctor Bradburn said and picked her up from the ground and carried her over to the cot. He settled her gently down and Nurse Clare covered her with a blanket.

Galinda felt a little bit uncomfortable due to all of the attention; after all it was Elphaba who needed it most.

While the doctor examined her more closely he asked her what she had eaten since he left them earlier.

"I ate one sandwich, I wasn't really hungry," Galinda said.

"This is not enough, Galinda. Your body was under stress too, not physically but mentally. Both things need resources. As we have told you before: You need to eat and rest so that you won't get sick. That bad headache and your fainting spell prove it.

I will give you something for the pain and some medicine for your circulatory system, but it is crucial that you sleep. You must not worry about Elphaba right now. If she awakes we will wake you also because we think that you are more able to calm her down should she panic again. Is that okay for you?" Doctor Bradburn said, looking her directly in the eyes.

Galinda sighed and nodded. She only wanted to get rid of this damn headache and nausea.

"Very good, please try to eat and drink something more while Nurse Clare is fetching your medicine," the doctor said. Before he left the room, he checked shortly on Elphaba's general condition and was satisfied that she was all right for the moment.

Galinda took one sandwich from the plate and drank some water. She still felt slightly nauseous but knew that she had to eat. She was very angry about herself. Elphaba needed her and now she was not able to watch after her. The nurse came back ten minutes later and gave her one pill and some powder that was mixed in tea.

"The pill is for your headache and the powder will help your circulatory system. Please sleep, Galinda. I promise that we will wake you in time", Nurse Clare said, patting her shoulder.

"I have no other choice," Galinda sighed and closed her eyes. She immediately fell asleep.

"Sleep well, dear," the nurse said quietly and switched off the light.

X

Both girls slept peacefully when Nurse Clare looked after them during the night.

She was glad that Galinda was able to rest. The doctor was very concerned about her. He hoped that she understood that it was okay for her to step back a little bit.

It was early morning and Nurse Clare went over to the administration building to report that Elphaba was in their care and would miss her classes. To be safe, she also asked to excuse Galinda, because she was positive that she was not in a frame of mind to attend.

She went over to the cafeteria to get some sweet breads and some milk. When Elphaba was awake they had to give her a substantial amount of fluid, which they had not been able to do the night before.

"I hope that she will be more comfortable with being in the infirmary," she said quietly to herself. She was a little bit tired, too, but was used to it. Elphaba could wake up any time now and she knew that the worst was not over yet. The burns tended to hurt more after a few hours and it was over twelve hours ago that Elphaba was surprised by the rainstorm.

The nurse hoped that Galinda's father could help them with the oil dilemma. They wouldn't know anyone nearby who could help with this. Doctor Bradburn thought of contacting Elphaba's family to ask where she got her oils, but he had a feeling that they would not be very helpful. Elphaba had pointed out the night before that no one really cared if she had the right supplies to treat injuries or not.

_What sort of family is this that they do not provide for their daughter, even__ though she is green?_

Nurse Clare reached the building where the infirmary was and was relieved that no one came running for her to tell her that something was wrong.

X

Elphaba thought that she was in hell. How else could she explain why her skin was burning all over her body? She tried to move, but the pain got worse in the process. She lay still for a while, becoming more and more aware of her surroundings.

Finally she opened her eyes and saw that she was in an unfamiliar room, which was casually decorated. Elphaba thought that she heard someone snore slightly and turned her head slowly to the left, then caught sight of the cot where Galinda slept and the memories where she was hit her hard. The rainstorm, the infirmary, someone examining her, the touches… It nearly overwhelmed her and she started to tremble with fear.

"Elphaba dear, everything is all right, please try to calm down!" she heard a soothing voice from her right side. Elphaba turned her head in the direction of it and saw Nurse Clare, sitting in a comfy chair in a corner beside her bed.

"You slept for a long time and will be fine. Can I do anything to make the situation easier for you?"

Elphaba tried to shift herself a little and winced in pain. "Could I have something to drink? I feel like I haven't had anything for days", she asked quietly.

"Of course, what do you like? We have milk and cider for you. You need to drink a lot today, this dried out feeling is from the lost of fluid due to your burns as Doctor Bradburn has told you yesterday."

"Cider would be nice." Elphaba tried to sit up but was not very successful. Her arms hurt so much that she was not able to pull herself up.

"Wait, let me help you!" the nurse said and gently pulled her upward. This happened so fast, Elphaba couldn't even protest. The short movement caused a new wave of pain that washed over her body and she went pale but tried to hide her pain.

"Oh dear, do you require some more analgesics? Is the pain too much for you?" the nurse asked concerned.

"No, it is bearable, I don't need anything."

"If you say so…" Nurse Clare said and handed her a small glass of cider.

Elphaba was better able to drink than the night before and was very glad that she didn't need the help from the nurse. When she had finished her cider, Elphaba looked over to Galinda, who was still asleep on her cot. "Why is she still here?" she asked confused. She could remember that Galinda had been with her the evening before, but it was all a little bit fuzzy.

"Your roommate stayed here all night to look after you. We had to order her to sleep though; she was very concerned about you."

The answer to her question confused Elphaba even more. Why would Galinda stay up all night for her? They haven't even talked much during the past weeks. It never occurred to her that someone would actually look after her.

"Is she okay?" Elphaba asked, sounding concerned.

Nurse Clare thought of telling her charge about Galinda's fainting spell, but decided not to. She didn't want to worry Elphaba more.

"Yes, she is all right, just very tired. I had to promise her that I would wake her should you be awake before her, but I think that she needs more sleep. Is that okay for you?"

"Of course it is okay, please let her sleep. I don't know why she looked after me and why she stayed up so long," Elphaba said.

"Okay. I will get you some breakfast and your medicine. Is there anything else you require?"

"No, I don't need anything for the moment, thank you."

"All right, I will be back in ten minutes," the nurse said and went out of the door.

Elphaba sighed and closed her eyes. There was too much to process at the moment. She was angry about herself for not being attentive enough and getting surprised by the rainstorm. This had happened only once in her live, but she had been far more lucky the last time.

The things that had happened afterwards would make her childhood even more difficult.

She never told anyone about that time of her life; it was too hurtful to remember. For now she had to deal with the consequences of her mistake she made the day before.

A soft knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. Nurse Clare came in with a tray of sweetbreads and milk on it and settled it down on her bedside table.

"Please try and eat something, your body needs all his strength now", the nurse said while she helped Elphaba to sit up more. "There are two pills for you to take; they will hopefully help the healing process along. I will prepare a new dressing for your burns in the meantime."

"I will try to eat", Elphaba said and took a cinnamon bun from the plate. She had never been a good eater and was not used to eat with someone present. She always preferred to take her meals alone.

She managed to eat one bun and drank some milk. When she was finished, Elphaba heard movement from Galinda's cot and looked over. The little blonde slowly opened her eyes and seemed to realize where she was rather quickly. She looked over to her immediately.

"Elphaba, you are awake! Why hasn't anyone woken me up immediately?" Galinda said, jumping up from the cot and hurrying over to her roommate.

"Galinda, I woke up not long before you and didn't want to wake you up. The nurse told me that you stayed up very late last night", Elphaba said.

"But you were so frightened last night and I wanted to be there for you", Galinda said and sat down in a chair beside the bed.

"How are you this morning? Do your burns hurt much?"

"I am all right for now. The burns are hurting but it is tolerable. Nurse Clare was here when I woke up and looked after me."

Nurse Clare went over to the two girls and laid a hand on Galinda's shoulders.

"Good morning dear. Please calm down, your roommate is indeed okay. She simply was concerned about you. I just prepared the new dressings for her wounds and we will tend to them after she is finished with breakfast."

"Can I stay with her while you tend to her?" Galinda asked.

"Of course you can. We need someone who can provide comfort for Elphaba. You did a very good job with that yesterday," Nurse Clare said.

"I will go and get Doctor Bradburn, because he has to look over the wounds. I will be right back."

After the nurse left the room, Elphaba got more and more uncomfortable. "Oh no, not the doctor again," she sighed.

"Elphaba, I know that you are afraid of him, but he needs to look after you. I will be there the whole time."

"Thank you for staying with me. It is probably not easy for you," Elphaba said, smiling slightly.

"Why should I leave you here alone? You need someone who looks after you." Elphaba started to comment but just then there was a knock on the door again and the nurse and doctor entered the room.

As soon as Elphaba got sight of the doctor, her pulse quickened and the fear began to rise in her again. Galinda was sitting beside her and gently laid a hand on her shoulders.

"It's okay, Elphaba, I am here to watch over everything that will happen, please don't be frightened", Galinda whispered in her ear.

Doctor Bradburn slowly walked over to the two girls. He saw Elphaba's fear in her eyes but knew that he had no choice; he had to look after the burns.

"Good morning you two, how are you?"

"I am fine, Doctor Bradburn", Galinda said and smiled.

"I… I am fine too", Elphaba said with a slightly quivering voice. Galinda slightly patted her shoulder to reassure her, but she winced and made a face.

"Oh my! I am sorry, Elphaba; I didn't intend to hurt you!" Galinda said franticly.

"Galinda, it is okay, please don't be upset, you just wanted to comfort me, okay?" Elphaba said.

_But why is she doing all of this?_

"Do you think that you are comfortable with me, so that I can look after the burns?" Doctor Bradburn asked.

"I have no choice, you have to look after them," Elphaba said with a resigning voice.

"Okay Elphaba, Nurse Clare will remove the old bandages and will clean the wounds. Then I will have a close look at them. We asked our apothecary for some mineral oil, since yours will be not enough. But we haven't told him about your allergy", he added quickly when he saw the panicked look on Elphaba's face. Elphaba sighed a breath of relief after hearing that.

Nurse Clare came over with the new bandages and put them on another table beside the bed. She began to remove the old ones and gently put oil on parts of the bandages which clung to her skin.

Elphaba lay still with her eyes closed and winced in pain a few times, but tried to not show her pain. When she opened her eyes, she was able to see the whole extend from her mistake the evening before.

_Well done__, Elphaba, now you can see what happens when you are not paying attention to your surroundings._

While the nurse was busy with the wounds, Galinda was watching over every action that was done. It still hurt in her heart that Elphaba suffered such bad burns and it was hardly to believe that water could do such damage to that emerald green skin. When the nurse was ready with cleaning, Doctor Bradburn went over and took a close look onto the burns. He was not pleased with what he saw, but stayed calm. He only cast a significant look to Nurse Clare.

The skin surrounding the burns was slightly inflamed and new blisters started to form. He was more concerned than before, that they might get infected.

"Okay Elphaba, your wounds could look better, but considering the lack of sufficient ointment and cleaning supplies we must be happy what we have now. We will dress them with new bandages now. I hope that we will not hurt you too much in the process," the doctor said and began to apply the new ointment and the bandages to each burn.

Elphaba flinched a few times during the process but managed to hide her pain from the doctor and nurse. She didn't know that she had less luck with Galinda. The blonde knew that she was hiding her pain and was curious about why she was doing it.

Finally they were finished and Elphaba could relax a little bit more. She knew that the doctor would not stay very long now.

"Alright Elphaba, I will look after you in a few hours. If you need something, just call for Nurse Clare. I am sure that she already told you about the things you should do to help the healing process along."

"Yes, she did, Doctor."

"Fine. See you two later!" he said and went out of the door with the nurse.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Elphaba sank back into her pillows and sighed a breath of relieve.

"Have I told you that I hate doctors?"

The only response was a slight chuckle from Galinda.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Galinda's father sat in his office, drinking a cup of coffee, when he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in!" he said and turned in his chair.

"Good morning Timion, how are you? " His assistant Jahir asked as he entered the room.

"I am well, thank you. What do you have for me? " Timion said as he noticed a letter in his hands.

"I just received this wire for you, it is from Galinda," Jahir said and handed it over to him.

"Thank you, I hope that nothing is wrong with her," he said, sounding very concerned.

Galinda wrote them often, but they never had received a wire from her before.

He quickly opened the envelope and scanned over the letter. He relaxed instantly when he read Galinda's reassurance that nothing was wrong with her.

As soon as he read about the water allergy, he closed his eyes and sighed deeply: He knew that girl! There was only one Ozian in all of Oz who was allergic to water.

He clearly remembered the day when he first met the green girl and shuddered from the flood of memories that nearly threatened to overwhelm him.

After all this years, he was still very ashamed that he was involved in the events that would make Elphaba's childhood well… difficult.

Now he had a chance to make it all up to this special girl. He wondered why his wife never told him, that Galinda was rooming with Elphaba. When Galinda wrote to him, she would never tell him anything specific about her.

All he knew was that his daughter disliked her roommate from the start and that she was very angry that she had to room with someone at all.

He was glad that Galinda asked him for help, because he could clearly imagine what difficulties any doctor would have with Elphaba's allergy. Timion was very sure that it had not been easy for Elphaba to live with that strange allergy.

After he put the letter into one of his desk drawers, Timion stood up and went to the door.

When he opened the door, he could overlook a big part of the lab. There were many different workstations and some meeting rooms.

Timion went into one of them and found Jahir sitting at a table, reading a report from one of the scientists. Jahir was not only his assistant, but also his best friend. They knew each other from school and worked together since they had graduated. He would trust him with his life.

"Jahir, can I talk to you for a moment please?" he asked after he knocked softly on the door frame to not startle his friend.

"Oh of course Timion, please sit down!" Jahir said.

Timion closed the door behind him and sat down beside Jahir on the large conference table.

"It is about Galinda's wire, she told me that her roommate got burned and that they need some special supplies to treat them," Timion hesitated for a moment before he continued.

"Her roommate is Elphaba Thropp," he said calmly, looking Jahir directly in the eye.

Jahir inhaled and looked very surprised at his friend. "Elphaba Thropp? Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes I am very sure, because you know that there is only one human being in Oz who is allergic to water."

"This is true."

"I didn't know that she is Galinda's roommate up until today. She never mentioned this in one of her letters to me. But that is not so important for the moment. She told me that Elphaba got burned during a rainstorm at Shiz yesterday and that the doctor there is afraid that he could not treat her burns sufficiently. Galinda asked me for help with that problem. I think that will be my chance to make some things that happened in the past up to her."

"Timion my friend, there are things that you could not change. I know that you feel bad about your involvement, but you had no other choice at that time," Jahir said, patting his friends shoulder.

Timion sighed. "I know, but I can't stop feeling bad about it. I want to take the train to Shiz this afternoon, to make sure that I can help Elphaba. I just need to talk to Elanora first."

"All right, I will prepare some supplies for you in the meantime. Just write all of them down and I will get them ready," Jahir said and got up from his chair.

"Thank you Jahir, I appreciate your help!"

"Just go home and talk to your wife, don't worry about the other things for now."

"Okay, I send you a note when I am ready and will pick the supplies up when I drive to the train station."

"That is all right with me, see you later."

"Yes, see you later," Timion said and hurried out of the door and back into his office. He quickly wrote down the needed supplies, then grabbed his jacket and bag and went out into the lab. He gave the note to Jahir then left.

It was a ten minute carriage ride to Upland manor and he was glad that it was not far from his lab. He hoped that Elanora would be home by now because he felt a strong urge to be as quickly in Shiz as possible. When he arrived at home, Timion was greeted by their butler.

"I know that I am home early, but is it possible that my wife is home yet?" he asked.

"Yes she arrived twenty minutes or so ago and is currently in her parlor," the butler said.

"Thank you," Timion said and crossed the hallway towards his wife's parlor. He knocked on the door and entered the room after he heard Elanora's soft reply.

"Hello darling, you are early," Elanora said when she saw her husband enter the parlor.

She was a little bit concerned because he never came home that early, besides something was wrong. Usually she had to remind him that he was working too long.

"Is everything okay?"

"Hello my precious wife, I am fine but something came up that we need to talk about," Timion said and gave his wife a soft kiss. "I got a wire from Galinda this morning. She told me that her roommate was injured yesterday and that she needs my help, because they can't treat her properly."

When Elanora started to say something, Timion held is hand up and continued: "I know that you didn't want to tell me about the fact that Galinda is rooming with Elphaba, because you know that it would make me feel uncomfortable. And that is okay. I still wish that I could change that part of my past," Timion said calmly.

"You are right darling, I told you not about Elphaba living in a room with Galinda, because I feared that it would trigger bad memories in you. I am glad that you see my intention to protect you. What happened to Elphaba?"

"Apparently she was surprised by a rainstorm yesterday afternoon and got burned. You know that she is allergic to water and how bad it must be."

"Yes, I can imagine that she received many burns, even when she was inside quickly."

"It seems that no one gave her proper supplies to treat any injuries, because Galinda asked me, if I could make her some antiseptic oil. The doctor there is concerned, that the wounds might get infected, because they could only use plain mineral oil."

"You want to go to Shiz, am I right?" Elanora asked gently.

"Yes, I need to. This is my chance to help her. I don't know if she will recognize me, but I must take the risk. There is so much that could happen to her when they can't treat her properly."

"I know and I understand your need to help her darling."

"I have been talking with Jahir and he is currently packing some supplies for me. He thought that visiting Shiz is a good idea too. I try to get the four 'o clock train this afternoon."

"That is okay, how long do you think you are needed there?"

"I think it depends on how Elphaba is doing. I hope that everything will be all right, but the possibility for complications is there. I will inform you as soon as I know more."

"Very well, let me pack a suitcase for you, so that you can make the arrangements."

"You are a treasure my dear," Timion said and kissed his wife tenderly.

Timion hurried out of the parlor and called for their driver. When he arrived in town, he managed to get a ticket for a private compartment on the 4 'o clock train. After that was done, he quickly drove to his lab in order to get the supplies from Jahir, who was already waiting for him.

"Here is a box with all of the supplies you requested and some you might need also. I hope that you are able to help that special girl," Jahir said and handed the box over to his friend.

"Thank you Jahir, I hope that too. I have to go now. You will hear from me as soon as I know more about the situation."

Jahir looked Timion directly in his eyes and said: "And please remember: not everything was your fault."

Timion nodded and left the lab, not knowing what would await him at Shiz.

X

Back at Shiz, Galinda was still sitting beside Elphaba in a comfy chair, eating her breakfast. She had been watching Elphaba for a while now. Every time the green girl moved, she flinched, but tried to hide her pain. It seemed to get worse during the last twenty minutes.

Elphaba reached for the glass of milk that was on the bedside table, but this time the pain in her arm and side was so intense that she let out a little yelp, despite her effort to suppress it.

"Oz Elphaba! You can't hide the fact that you are in a lot of pain from me any longer!" Galinda said a little bit unnerved and stood up. "Why haven't you told the doctor that you require more analgesics?

Elphaba sighed and looked at Galinda. "I don't want to take more. It makes me sleepy and… I am afraid of the dreams that I could have."

"Oh dear!" Galinda said. "But Elphaba, the pain must be worse than a nightmare, don't you think?"

"Pain is something I can deal with, but I have no control over the nightmares."

"Fine, but please understand that I have my own limits seeing you in such a great amount of pain."

Elphaba looked over to Galinda and said quietly: "You mustn't stay with me you know?"

Galinda took a deep breath before she answered: "I know that I could go back to our room, but I don't want to. You need someone who looks after you, and please don't tell me that you can handle all of this alone."

"But why are you doing this? Why do you suddenly feel the strong need to provide me comfort?" Elphaba asked the question she had in her mind all of the time.

"Because I sort of like you"

There was a stunned silence in the room after that statement. Galinda was surprised that it came out so easily. But it was now clear to her, that it was not pity that made her stay with Elphaba in the infirmary.

"You…You like me?" Elphaba stammered slightly. "But why me, the ugly, broody green girl, that you was forced to live with?"

"I don't know, sometimes friendship has no rules," Galinda said with a smile. "Please don't push me away; I just want to provide you a little comfort in a situation which is apparently not easy for you."

Elphaba sighed deeply and smiled tentatively at Galinda. "Okay, stay here with me if it makes you happy. I don't understand why you want it yet, but I think that I have not the strength to throw you out of the room," Elphaba said with a wink.

"Oh I doubt that you are able to throw me out too, you can barely move your arms without feeling a good amount of pain. And that brings us back to the fact, that you need to take something against it!" Galinda said firmly.

"Fine, I will take something," Elphaba said, silently admitting to herself, that she more than needed it by now.

"Finally!" Galinda said and threw her hands up in the air. "Is it okay if I leave you for a moment to talk to the nurse?"

"Of course, I can handle being alone here just fine," Elphaba said a little bit testy.

"Elphaba, I didn't say that and you know it," Galinda replied calmly. "I'll be right back."

With that she crossed the room and went out of the door.

X

Galinda went down the hallway and to the front desk, where another nurse sat. "Excuse me; is it possible for me to talk to Nurse Clare for a moment?"

"You are Miss Upland correct?" The nurse asked.

"I am."

"I will get Nurse Clare for you, just sit down over there, I will be back in just a moment," she said, pointing to the small sitting area that was across from the desk.

"Thank you!" Galinda said and sat down in a chair.

The young nurse knocked on the door to the head nurse's office and entered it after she heard a soft response.

"Good morning Nurse Clare, Miss Upland wishes to speak with you."

"Thank you, I will get her myself."

She went to the sitting area and called for Galinda, but the blonde was deep in thought and didn't hear her. When she laid her hand on Galinda's shoulder, the girl startled slightly.

"Oh Nurse Clare, I haven't noticed that you are here," she said a little embarrassed.

"No matter dear, I heard that you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes I do, do you have a moment?"

"Of course, just follow me into my office."

"What can I do for you?" the nurse asked after they both sat down at her desk.

"Elphaba needs more pain medication. She tries to hide it, but I can see that every motion is hurting her. I told her that she mustn't live with the pain, but she seemed to be afraid that it would make her drowsy again."

"She is afraid of the nightmares, isn't she?" the nurse said.

"Yes, very much. I wish I knew what is haunting her."

"It will come out in time. I suppose that you convinced her to take something for the pain?"

"Yes, I did, albeit it was not an easy task."

"I can imagine," the nurse chuckled and got up, indicating Galinda to do the same.

She went over to a table and took a tray that was on it.

"I have already prepared some medicine for her; we need to give her some anti-inflammatory medicine too. We are just cautious," she added when she saw Galinda's worried look. She didn't want to concern her even more than she already was. "I just added a new pain medication for her."

Nurse Clare went out of her office with Galinda and told the young nurse at the front desk where she could be found.

"I hope that my father got my wire, I hope that he is able to help Elphaba."

"I am positive that he got it. To be true the doctor and I are very curious to meet him. We heard a lot of good things about him."

"Really?" Galinda asked surprised. She knew that her father was well known in Frottica and the towns around, but never thought that someone in Shiz would have heard about him.

"The medical world is small," the nurse chuckled.

They reached Elphaba's room and Galinda knocked on the door and went inside.

Elphaba had her eyes closed, but opened them as soon as she heard the knock on the door.

She wondered why Galinda was gone for so long.

"I am back Elphaba, Nurse Clare has some medicine for you," Galinda said.

The nurse gave Elphaba the little cup with the pills. "I know that you don't want to sleep Elphaba, but you mustn't be in more pain than necessary. The new analgesic is not so strong like the others we gave you, so you have to take it more often. But it will not make you drowsy, I promise."

"I appreciate that," Elphaba said and drank the pills down with some cider. "Nurse Clare?" Elphaba asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"Who knows that I am here?"

"I informed your advisor about your extended absence from class but no one else. Why do you ask?"

Elphaba looked relieved. "I just don't want that Madame Morrible get word about that, she would inform my father and that would make the situation not easier for me."

"There is no need in telling Madame Morrible about your injuries. We will only inform your advisor and no one else. Is that okay for you?

"Yes it is, thank you." She turned her head in Galinda's direction and said "If anyone asks about me, please don't tell them either, I...I had been hiding my allergy for so long and was successful. I don't want that anyone will find that out."

"Of course Elphaba, I will tell no one about your allergy," Galinda said reassuringly.

After she heard that her secret was safe for now, Elphaba relaxed visibly.

"All right girls, I will attend to my other patients now and will be back with your lunch in two hours or so," the nurse said.

"We will call you if we need something," Galinda said.

"I am sure that you will, until later!"

After then nurse left, both girls were silent for a few minutes.

Elphaba was the first one to speak. "Galinda, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Of course Elphaba, what is it?"

"Can you go to our room and bring me some books from my desk? It seems that I have to stay here longer and I most likely get bored."

"Sure, just tell me which books you want and I will get them for you. I need to get some fresh clothes for me anyway. I will be back in 30 minutes or so."

"Thank you, don't hurry to much, I think I am relatively comfortable with being here for now - when there is no doctor of course," Elphaba said, smiling slightly.

Galinda smiled back and grabbed her purse and outerwear. "Please try and relax a little while I'm away."

"I will."

After Galinda left the room, Elphaba sighed deeply. She was still confused about the change in Galinda's demeanor when she was with her. Could it be that she was about to have a real friend?

X

Galinda walked slowly across campus, relieved that there were not so many students underway. It still rained and the wind was blowing.

She was afraid of meeting Jennica again because she was sure that she was absolutely not in the mood to tell anyone were she had been the last 24 hours. Galinda didn't thought about the implications of her helping Elphaba yet.

The blonde reached the dorm and was glad to be inside again. As much as she liked rain, as soon as it involves storms, she was not so comfortable with it. She managed to get to their room undetected because almost anyone was in class now.

After entering the room, Galinda immediately went into the bathroom and started to disrobe. She bathed quickly but thoroughly and was finished after ten minutes.

She stepped out of the bathroom and went over to her wardrobe to select a fresh outfit.

After dressing quickly she got the books for Elphaba from her desk and put them into a satchel. With an afterthought she went over to her desk and retrieved a little notebook for Elphaba from a drawer. She was sure that Elphaba had to stay in the infirmary long enough to get bored and books alone are not enough because the green girl always made notes while reading.

Galinda looked around the room and was satisfied that she had everything.

The only task now was to return to Elphaba.

She managed to get there without any disturbing events. When she was inside of the building, Galinda took a deep breath. "I will not have so much luck the next times," she muttered to herself.

Galinda went into the infirmary and headed towards Elphaba's room. She hoped that everything was still fine.

She opened the door to the room and saw that Elphaba was asleep again.

_Oh __no__, __she __didn__'__t __wanted __to __sleep_ Galinda thought and went over to her cot and laid the satchel on top of it.

It was eleven thirty by now and Galinda wondered how long Elphaba would sleep this time.

She took her journal out of the satchel and sat down in the comfy chair again.

For close to half an hour, she wrote everything what happened since she found her roommate out in the rain. It was still hard to believe that something simple like water could harm the green girl.

After she finished with writing in her journal, Galinda leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. There was a headache starting again and she hoped that it would not be so worse like the evening before.

She must have napped in, because she didn't notice that the nurse came into the room.

"Hello Galinda, I have lunch for you two." She saw that Elphaba was asleep and was a little bit surprised. "How long is she asleep?"

"I don't know when she fell asleep, I was in our dorm room to freshen up and get some books for her. She was sleeping already when I returned. Haven't you told her that the medicine would not make her drowsy?"

"It normally doesn't, It seems that her body just needed more sleep and she just fell asleep. She can eat her lunch when she awakes, I can warm it up for her."

"I will call you when Elphaba awakes," Galinda said and sat down on the table where the nurse had sat down the tray with the food. There was a bowl of chicken broth and some bread and a plate with rice and chicken. "Thank you for bringing lunch," Galinda said, starting with the chicken broth.

"There is nothing to thank, I suppose that you didn't want to go over to the cafe."

"No, I don't want to be away for so long."

"Enjoy your meal, I will come back in tree hours or so to check on Elphaba's burns. You know what you have to do when she wakes up before that."

"Yes I do," Galinda said.

After the nurse was gone, Galinda dug in into her food. She was so occupied during the morning that she hadn't noticed that she was very hungry. After she had finished her lunch, Galinda took a sketchpad out of her satchel and began to draw. She was too immersed in her work, that she didn't noticed that Elphaba started to fidget in her sleep.

x

_The __hands __were __everywhere__, __examining __her__, __taking __samples __from __her __skin__. __The __pain __was __almost __unbearable__. __Elphaba __tried __to __escape __from __the __examination __table__, __but __she __was __restrained __by __many __leather __straps __that __fixed __her __onto __the __table__. __Her __panic __grew__._

_The __room __she __was __in __was __lit __with __a __bright __light __that __blended __her __eyes__. __A __man __in __a __white __lab__coat __leaned __over __her __and __dropped __some __water __onto __her __bare __skin __on __her __chest__. _

_The __water __burned __her __instantly __and __she __cried __out __in __pain__. __The __man __slapped __her __across __the __face __to __silence __her__._

"_Quiet __you __green __monster__, __we __need __to __find __out __how __to __cure __your __skin __condition__. __You __are __a __sin__, __you __deserve __to __feel __the __pain__!" t__he __man __said __smirking__._

"_No__! __Please __stop__! __Please__! __Leave __me __alone__" __Elphaba __cried __and __pulled __desperately __on __her __restrains__._

_The __man __turned __to __an __assistant __who __was __observing __the __experiment__._

"_You __there__, __come __and __hold __her __down __on __the __table__, __she __is __still __moving __too __much__!"_

_The __young __man __came __reluctantly __over __to __the __table__._

"_Oh __don__'__t __be __afraid __of __that __green __freak__, __she __won__'__t __bite __you__," __he __said__._

_The __assistant __put __his __hands __on __both __of __Elphaba__'__s __shoulders __and __kept __them __down __while __the __doctor __continued __with __his __tests__._

"_Hmm __I __think __I __will __try __out __what __happens __when __I __give __her __a __injection __with __water__, __I __am __very __curious __if __she __is __as __allergic __to __water __from __the __inside __as __on __the __outside__."_

_His __assistant __started __to __protest__, __but __the __doctor __silenced __him __with __a __stern __gaze__._

_After __the __doctor __administered __the __shot __into __one __of __Elphaba__'__s __arms__, __the __green __girl __started __to __cry __out __in __agony __and __writhed __on __the __table__._

"_Stop __it__! __Please __make __it __stop__!," __she __cried __out__, __tears __streaming __down __her __face__, __burning __it__._

_The __doctor __just __laughed __sardonically__ "__Stop __crying __like __a __baby__! __Now __we __know __that __your __whole __body __is __allergic __to __water__. __It __proves __that __we __have __a __lot __of __work __to __do__!"_

_The __pain __in __Elphaba__'__s __body __grew __stronger __and __stronger __as __the __water __was __pumped __trough __her __veins__, __burning __them__, __but __not __too __much __to __cause __permanent __damage__. __Her __cries __grew __even __louder __when __they __started __to __take __another __sample __of __skin __from __her __stomach __area__._

_Her __ordeal __would __never __end__._

_x_

Galinda was startled from her work when a sudden loud scream came from Elphaba. She quickly looked over to her roommate and saw that she was tossing and turning wildly in her bed.

"Oh no she has a nightmare!" Galinda quickly went over onto Elphaba's side and tried to wake her up.

"Elphaba, wake up! It is just a bad dream, it will be okay!"

She saw that tears were running down Elphaba's face, leaving angry red marks on the already burnt cheeks. The blonde quickly took a soft cloth from the beside table and carefully wiped the tears away.

"No! No leave me alone!" Elphaba cried and tried to push away Galinda's hand.

She was still not awake and Galinda wondered how she could help her.

After calling her name and squeezing Elphaba's hands the green girl suddenly opened her eyes, looking around wildly. At this time, Galinda was holding onto her arm to try and keep her from harming herself with her wild trashing. Elphaba felt restrained and tried to jerk her arm away. When Galinda still held onto her arm, the green girl gathered all of her strength and pulled herself free. She shot up from the bed and tried to flee, but she came not far and collapsed onto the floor. The pain was so intense that she was barely able to breathe and the room was spinning around her.

All of this happened so fast, that Galinda was totally stunned when she saw Elphaba on the floor. She didn't know that her attempt to protect her roommate caused the increasing of the panic. She jumped up and crouched down next to Elphaba.

"Sweet Oz Elphaba! Please calm down, I won't hurt you, it's just me, Galinda"

Elphaba was very pale and her breathing was ragged. She barely registered Galinda by her side.

Galinda didn't know what to do, she couldn't get Elphaba into her bed alone. She jumped up from the ground and ran over to the pulling cord. The blonde wondered why nobody was here already, after all, her roommate had been crying rather loud.

After she had pulled the cord, Galinda crouched down beside Elphaba again.

"Elphaba, please listen to me. I called for help and you will be safely back in your bed in just a moment. Trust me you will be alright." Galinda continued to speak with Elphaba in a comforting manner until Nurse Clare came rushing into the room.

"Oh dear what happened?" she said and went over to them "My colleague alerted me when she heard the cries from your room."

"Elphaba had a nightmare and woke up screaming. I don't know if she is really awake, she is not responding to me," Galinda said, sounding very concerned.

Nurse Clare crouched down beside the distraught green girl and tried to get her attention, but Elphaba didn't respond at all. She was trembling violently and had a look of sheer terror on her face.

"I can't get her attention, we need to get her out of that state very quickly, but I don't know how," the nurse said.

Galinda knew that something drastic must happen in order to get Elphaba out of her panic and nearly catatonic state. With no further thought, she leaned towards Elphaba and hugged her gently. Elphaba immediately tried to fight her, but Galinda held tightly onto her.

"It's okay Elphaba, I won't hurt you, please trust me! Look at me, just look at me and you will see that you are no longer in your nightmare. Nobody is here to hurt you," she spoke softly directly into Elphaba's ear.

It briefly crossed Galinda's mind that she was in very close proximity to Elphaba and that it didn't bothered her at all.

Elphaba slowly stopped fighting Galinda and her breathing went slower and more regular than before. She was still trembling and pale, but seemed to be more aware of her surroundings.

"Galinda?" Elphaba asked in a hoarse whisper. "Why are you holding me?"

"You had a nightmare and I tried to wake you up from it. Nothing helped, so I tried this," Galinda said.

"Thank you for waking me," Elphaba said weekly. She felt like any power was gone from her body and a throbbing pain spread all over it.

Nurse Clare was relieved that Elphaba was awake but they needed to get her back into the bed.

"Elphaba, I will call for one of my assistants to get you back into your bed. I will not call for the doctor because I think that will make you even more uncomfortable. I can't do that task because my back will not allow it; after all I am over fifty," the nurse said smiling.

After only one minute the nurse was back with her assistant, the one who was at the desk earlier. Soon Elphaba was safely back in her bed. The green girl felt very uncomfortable with the pain she felt, but said nothing about it.

But this time the nurse was prepared for that. "Elphaba, please don't try to hide your pain, we all know that you feel a good amount of it right now. I will suggest that I give you a sleep aid that will prevent any nightmares that could occur because you will sleep very deeply. I promise."

Elphaba knew that the nurse was right. "Okay, if you say that I really won't have any nightmares, I will take the sleep aid."

"Before you take it you need to drink at least two glasses of cider. I'm sure you haven't been drinking enough this morning," the nurse said and handed Elphaba the first glass of cider, which the green girl drank down rather quickly.

She gave her the sleep aid with the second glass and assured her again that she would sleep peacefully.

Galinda was sitting on her cot and watched the scene. She was glad that Elphaba allowed Nurse Clare to give her the sleep aid. The blonde was still a little bit shocked of how intense the nightmare must have been. After taking the pill, Elphaba quickly fell asleep.

"Galinda can you come out with me for a moment?"

"Of course, is something wrong?"

"Not in the least, we received a short note from your father right before you alerted us. He will arrive at Shiz during the evening. Apparently he is interested in helping with Elphaba's needs."

"Oh I knew that he would come, but so quickly?"

"He said in his note that he wanted to help and that he knew that we have not much time left. We arranged for him to stay in guest quarters."

"Thank you so much, I am sure that he can help Elphaba," Galinda said. She was very relieved that her father would be here so soon.

"I advise you to take a nap too, you are still looking a little pale and I am afraid that your headaches will return soon."

"I must admit that they started again a while ago, but not very strong. But I will take a nap, because I know that Elphaba will sleep untroubled for now."

"Good girl." I will wake you up when your father arrives in case you are still asleep then."

"Thank you!" Galinda said and went back into Elphaba's room. She stretched out on her cot and was soon asleep too.

Both girls slept peacefully throughout the afternoon.

x

Timion arrived at eight-fifteen at Shiz. Devin, the dorm porter was waiting for him at the platform and drove him to the university. He was escorted to the infirmary and introduced to Doctor Bradburn and Nurse Clare.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Upland," Doctor Bradburn said, shaking the man's hand.

"We are very glad that you agreed to help us out in this unusual case, not to mention that you came so quickly."

"When I got the wire from Galinda, I realized that I heard about Elphaba in the past.

I know that I can help her because of that. How is she doing so far?"

"We are very concerned. When we changed the bandages this morning, the wounds looked slightly inflamed," Doctor Bradburn said.

"Okay, that sounds not so good. Can I see her now?"

"As far as I know Elphaba and your daughter are both asleep. Galinda stayed the whole time with Elphaba since she found her out in the rain," Nurse Clare said. Timion raised a brow in surprise.

"I will escort you to Elphaba's room. We gave her a sleep aid after she had a nightmare. She was very distressed and we wanted to prevent more stress."

Timion walked with the nurse down the hallway to Elphaba's room. He knocked on the door, but no one answered.

"It seems that both girls are still asleep, I will see if I can wake Galinda up," he said.

After he opened the door, Timion's gaze fell immediately on the sleeping Elphaba. A memory from a long time ago flashed through his mind and he saw the little green girl that was restrained to a table in a lab, crying out in agony.


	6. Chapter 6

-x-

_After he opened the door, Timion's gaze fell immediately on the sleeping Elphaba. A memory from a long time ago flashed through his mind and he saw the little green girl that was restrained to a table in a lab, crying out in agony._

_-x-_

Timion stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to compose himself. That memory took him by surprise. He finally walked quietly into the room and over to Elphaba. He didn't want to wake his daughter yet because he wanted to use the time to get a better look on the green girl.

He was not surprised to see that Elphaba had received burns on almost every part of her body.

"How deep are the burns?" he asked the nurse quietly.

"She received second degree burns on most of her body, and third degree on her arms and shoulders. We hope that they heal properly, because we were at a loss on how to treat her, given the circumstances. The doctor improvised a lot in her case. We didn't even know if we could give her a infusion, so Dr. Bradburn decided to not give her one. Now we have the problem of supplying her body with enough fluid."

Timion was very glad to hear that the doctor had the foresight not to give Elphaba an infusion. The moment Nurse Clare mentioned it, the vision of the little girl writhing on the cold lab table briefly appeared before his eyes again.

"I happen to know that a normal infusion would indeed be very harmful to Elphaba; her veins react to watery substances too. She can't drink water either. Despite all of the obstacles, you handled the situation very well. I imagine that it is not easy to treat someone with such an unusual allergy, but I think I will be able to help. I happen to have some experience with treating burns from my work at the clinic that is cooperating with my lab."

"That is nice to hear. Doctor Bradburn is a competent man, but was afraid that he could not help Elphaba. We don't have her medical record and we were surprised that she was allowed to study here without it. It seems to me that she wanted to hide her allergy from everyone."

"I think that Elphaba had her reasons to do so," Timion said. _But I think I know who wants to hide those record more than Elphaba herself..._

"I will leave you with the girls now and will be back with Doctor Bradburn. We need to check on Elphaba's wounds again when she is awake."

"All right, I will see if I can wake my daughter."

Timion turned and looked at Galinda, who lay sprawled over the cot, her right leg escaping from under the blanked. He smiled and walked over to sit on the edge. Galinda shifted slightly but didn't wake. He reached over and began to stroke her tousled hair.

"Galinda my dear, wake up," he said softly and smiled when she unconsciously tried to bat his hands away. After a minute, Galinda opened her eyes and smiled broadly when she caught sight of her father.

"Popsicle you're finally here!" Galinda said, sounding very relieved and launching herself into Timion's arms. Timion embraced her lovingly and held her tightly.

"Yes my darling, I'm here. I got your wire when I was in the lab and thought that it would be best to come right away. Your roommate has special needs and not everyone knows how to treat her under those circumstances. I am positive that I will find some way to help Elphaba." Timion looked into his daughter's face and saw the insecurity in her eyes. "How are you doing my Galinda?" he asked gently.

After Galinda heard that question, she could no longer control her emotions and burst into tears, burying her face into her father's shoulder. All of the stress and fear she had felt since last afternoon overwhelmed her now.

Timion wasn't surprised to see his daughter crying, because she had always been very sensitive. He embraced his daughter tightly and held her until she stopped sobbing and there were only a few sniffles to be heard. Galinda raised her head from his shoulder and wiped the last tears from her puffy eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Timion asked her gently when she seemed calmer.

"Oh Popsicle, I was so scared when I found her out there, lying under a stone bench. I didn't know at first that it was the rain that caused the burns and I thought that someone attacked her. She was so badly hurt and on top of that, she was absolutely terrified when the doctor was present. She had several panic attacks and I wish I knew what was haunting her whenever she sees a doctor."

Timion considered for a moment if he should tell her the reason, but decided against it. He was not sure how she would react. He also thought that Elphaba might want to tell her what happened in her past herself.

"Hmm, something must have happened, but I think she will tell you eventually. Have you befriended her?"

Galinda blushed and looked away from her father. "Uh... to be honest, we weren't really friends before that incident. We even fought for several months after the start of the term. I was a mean beast then," Galinda said, looking ashamed. "We started to accept one another two or three months ago, but I don't think that you could call it friendship yet."

Galinda took a deep breath and looked her Popsicle in the eyes again. "When I found her out there yesterday and saw how badly she was hurt when they examined her, it occurred to me that I couldn't lose her, because she is the most honest person I know. She tried to show me that I focused on the wrong things. All I did was humiliate her and she didn't deserve it. I really was not fair to her."

Timion was very surprised to hear Galinda's confession. He never thought that anyone would be able to change her mind about what was important. She had always had many friends wherever she went, but he never thought that Galinda had real friends. They all admired her for her looks and her wealth, but nothing more. He and her mother had always thought that there was more than a social butterfly inside their daughter.

"Galinda darling, everyone has to learn how to accept new people in their lives and it is not always easy. I am proud of you, because you decided to help your roommate and are trying to understand her more. I admit that I was a little bit surprised when I heard you practically never left her side yesterday."

"How could I? She has no one else to look after her."

"And it was absolutely right of you darling. Would you mind showing me Elphaba's oils? I need some basic information about what she normally uses."

"Of course Popsicle!" Galinda got up and quietly walked over to the dresser, where Nurse Clare had put the box. Timion looked over the assortment of oils and was not really surprised to see that she only had basic cleaning supplies.

"Okay, Elphaba's oils are indeed no use to us. I will confer with the doctor and hope that the first oil is ready tomorrow morning. They have to use the plain mineral oil one more time. I hope that it is not to late."

"Thank you daddy!" Galinda said and hugged him hard.

"I am glad that I can help darling, but now I need to go and find Doctor Bradburn. Just try and relax a bit," Timion said and went to the door.

"All right Popsicle, have fun in the lab."

After Timion was gone, Galinda lay down again and started to read a book about art. She wondered how long Elphaba would be asleep.

x

"What can I do for you Mr. Upland?" Nurse Nikota asked as Timion approached the front desk.

"I need to see Doctor Bradburn, concerning Miss Thropp. Would you please inform him?"

"Of course, I will call him immediately," the nurse said and hurried down the hallway to Dr. Bradburn's office. She came back with him two minute later.

The Doctor looked concerned. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yes, yes everything is fine," Timion assured him quickly. " Elphaba is still asleep and I was able to have a little chat with my daughter. She showed me the oils and I decided that I should start creating new ones very soon. All I need is a lab where I can work properly."

Doctor Bradburn nodded. "I have a little lab for my own research here in the building; you may use it if you like. Do you have all of the necessary supplies with you?"

"Yes, the supplies should be with my luggage. I appreciate your offer, and I think I will be able to create something that should be ready by tomorrow morning."

"Very well. I will send someone to your room to fetch the supplies if that's all right with you. I can show you the lab in the meantime."

"That would be nice, thank you. Everything I need is in a big box," Timion said as he followed the Doctor out of the infirmary after the doctor sent a short note to Devin. They went up the stairs into another part of the building and down a short hallway. Doctor Bradburn took a key out of his pocket when they reached the lab. After they entered the room, Timion looked around and was astounded at how well equipped it was.

"You have a very nice lab here," Timion said and stepped further into the room. It was medium sized and had a front of windows on one side, which provided much light.

"Thank you. I made this room into a personal lab when it was offered as my office, but I wanted my office directly in the infirmary instead. So I had the idea to use it otherwise and this is the result."

There was a knock on the door and the doctor went to open it. It was Devin with the requested box. Doctor Bradburn thanked him for fetching it and handled the box over to Timion, who immediately began to unpack it. There was a big bottle of mineral oil and a wide variety of medical plants.

Doctor Bradburn was very curious about why Timion seemed to know what he has to use for Elphaba and decided to ask him.

"How do you know what you can use and what not? Has it something to do with you knowing Elphaba?"

Timion sighed. He was not sure if he should tell him the truth about his involvement in Elphaba's past or not. He decided to give the doctor minimal information to be save.

"Well, when I was young and made my apprenticeship after I graduated, I worked with a Professor who treated Elphaba at that time. During that time, I learned what harmed her and what didn't. I hope this will answer your question."

"Ah I see, I am very glad that you have this knowledge," Doctor Bradburn smiled.

_I don't think that he would be so glad if he knew the whole truth_ Timion thought.

"All right, I will leave you with your work and return to my office. Don't hesitate to contact me if you require something."

"I will," Timion said and took the big oil bottle and poured some into a metal bowl. There was much work to do.

x

When Elphaba awoke, she had an incredible dry mouth and throat. When she tried to call for Galinda, she managed only a hoarse whisper.

Galinda heard her the second time she tried to call her. "Oh Elphaba, you are awake! What happened to you voice?" Galinda asked, concerned.

"My mouth and throat are very dry; would you mind handing me some milk?"

"Of course not, let me get you a big glass." Galinda went to the table and poured some cold milk that was in a little cooler into a glass. She quickly brought it Elphaba, who took it gratefully. As Elphaba tried to sit up more in order to drink, she became very dizzy and sunk back into the pillow.

"Is everything okay?" Galinda asked, looking alarmed.

"I just became very dizzy, that's all."

Elphaba made another attempt to sit up and was more successful this time, as Galinda supported her with a gentle hand on her back. When she was upright, the blonde placed a big pillow behind her.

"Thank you," Elphaba whispered and took little gulps of her milk. After she finished it, the uncomfortable feeling in her throat was slightly better.

"I hope you slept well. I am very sorry that you had a nightmare earlier.

"Yes I slept better this time, but I hate that I needed a sleep aid to fend off any nightmares at all," Elphaba said, annoyed. She started to fidget a little uncomfortably and looked over at Galinda, starting to blush deeply.

Galinda had never seen her roomie blush before and thought that something was wrong with her. "Are you okay? Your face is suddenly so, uh dark green."

"Oh, I am fine... I look like that when I blush, you know."

Galinda was a little embarrassed, because it had never crossed her mind that Elphaba couldn't get red like any other person would.

"Uh...Galinda? I really don't want to ask, but I... I have to go to the bathroom and I don't think that I can get there alone," she stammered and Galinda thought that it wasn't even possible for Elphaba's face to be darker than before.

"Should I get Nurse Clare to help you?"

"No! Please don't call the Nurse! It is hard enough that I need help to do something simple like going to the bathroom. Can you help me please?"

Galinda was not sure why her roomie was so hesitant to ask for help but remembered that she seemed to be very shy, because she never dressed herself outside the safety of their bathroom.

"Of course I will help you." This time it was Galinda's turn to blush slightly. "Uh Elphaba... actually there is another way to relieve yourself."

"And what would that be?"

"A... a bedpan," Galinda stuttered and blushed scarlet.

Elphaba looked at her incredulously. "I should use WHAT? Are you mad? Oh no, I will not subject myself to such humiliation!"

Galinda regretted her suggestion as soon as she saw the look on the green girl's face.

"Elphaba please calm down, you needn't use it, it was merely a suggestion. You can try to walk over to the bathroom with my help."

"I don't have to try it, I'll just do it, end of discussion," Elphaba said.

The little blonde went over to Elphaba's bed and held her arm out towards her roomie. Elphaba slowly moved to sit on the edge of her bed. She felt dizzy again and closed her eyes briefly against it. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she thought, but the dizziness went away after a moment and she took Galinda's proffered arm and rose slowly to her feet, holding very firmly onto Galinda, as she was very unsteady. The bathroom was not far from the bed and they were both very happy about that fact. Galinda had one arm around Elphaba's waist and steadied her as best as she could while they slowly made their way towards their destination.

It went better than Galinda expected and soon both girls had to face a bigger problem: could Elphaba manage the rest alone, or did she need help? The blonde was afraid it would be too difficult, what with the green woman's shyness.

Galinda decided to let Elphaba try it alone; she always could assist her later if the need arose. When Elphaba was able to hold onto the wall near the toilet, Galinda let her go and discreetly turned around, hoping that she wouldn't be needed. Elphaba was relieved that her roomie seemed to sense that she was very uncomfortable with someone else present. She managed to lift her hospital gown and lowered herself slowly onto the toilet, stifling a groan.

"I think I can manage it alone from that point." She was still ashamed that Galinda had to see her so weak and wanted nothing more than to be alone.

"Okay I will wait outside, call me if you need help or something is wrong." Galinda was not sure if it was right to leave Elphaba alone. She waited just outside the door and hoped that everything was okay. After five minutes she grew nervous, fidgeting with her hands. When Galinda was just about to look after her roomie, Elphaba opened the door, looking relieved that she had manged it alone. Galinda attempted to support her again but she refused.

"Please Galinda, I am still capable of walking alone!"

"But you are very pale and I am afraid that you will fall should you got dizzy again,"Galinda said, but stayed a short distance behind her as soon as Elphaba started to walk back to her bed. When she was nearly there all went suddenly black and she swayed dangerously and her breathing got heavy. Galinda was at her side in an instant and held onto her as firmly as she dared, hoping she wouldn't hurt her.

"Oh my, Elphaba, see I told you that you shouldn't walk by yourself, you nearly fell! Do you think that you can walk the last couple of steps with my help?" Elphaba nodded and they managed to get there with some effort. The green girl was still breathing heavily and her hands were trembling. Galinda helped settling down again and covered her with the blanket. Due to all the movement, Elphaba was painfully reminded of her burns and it nearly took her breath away

"Thank you for helping me," Elphaba said quietly. "It was stupid of me to think that I could walk alone."

"You're welcome, are you feeling better?"

"I still feel a bit lightheaded and the burns are throbbing," Elphaba admitted.

"I think I know why you feel not well, you were asleep most of the day and didn't eat a lot. Just let me call the nurse, I am sure she will bring us some dinner." Galinda pulled the cord and Nurse Clare appeared shortly after.

"Hello girls! Have you had a nice nap?"

Both girls nodded. The nurse turned her attention towards Elphaba. "Are you feeling better dear? I hope that the nap was beneficial to you." She went over and took Elphaba's hand to feel her pulse and noticed that is was slightly irregular and the green girl's face was rather pale.

"I experienced some dizziness when I moved too fast, but otherwise I am okay for now," Elphaba said.

"I will give you some more medicine to stabilize your circulatory system then. Can you try to drink at least tree glasses of cider? It will help you a lot. Doctor Bradburn will look after you later, but first I will bring dinner for both of you."

"Thank you Nurse, can you bring us something without meat? I remember that Elphaba doesn't eat any." Elphaba looked surprised at Galinda; she didn't know that her roomie was paying such close attention to her.

"Oh no problem at all, I can bring you everything you want. I will be back in about twenty minutes," the nurse said and bustled out of the door.

Galinda chuckled lightly "I like her a lot, she is like a little storm that bursts through the rooms."

Elphaba winced at the notion of a storm and Galinda noticed it. "Oh Elphaba I am so sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned _that _word!"

"No don't apologize, it's okay. You couldn't know that I would react badly to the mention of a simple word like that. I don't want you to restrain yourself because of me."

Galinda nodded and settled down in the comfy chair beside her roomie's bed. It suddenly came to her mind that Elphaba didn't know about the arrival of her father yet. Galinda took a deep breath "There is something I need to tell you," she started a little afraid of how Elphaba would react "My father arrived earlier to help treating you. Apparently he wanted to be here so that he will be able to just get the right things for you." She exhaled and looked at the green girl, almost expecting her to be angry about it. But the green girl remained silent, looking very confused.

"Your father came all the way from Frottica to help me?" Elphaba said bewildered. She couldn't believe that someone would do such a thing for her, the ugly green girl who didn't deserve to be cared for. She had been told all her life that she was not worth it. "But why would he do such a thing? He doesn't even know me after all!"

"Oh Elphaba, my father likes to help people. That's why he is running his lab in Frottica. He loves science and wants to share his knowledge. I am happy that he is here, he will be able to help Doctor Bradburn a lot."

"All right, I don't think that I will make sense to dwell on it right now," Elphaba said, trying to put her confusion aside.

"As I know my Popsicle, he will already be in a lab on campus, happily mixing some oil or whatever he thinks they will need for you. He told me that he hopes to have the first oil ready for tomorrow morning. We were able to talk some while you was asleep."

Both girls were silent for a while, each one following her own thoughts. They didn't noticed how much time went by and were startled by Nurse Clare who knocked on the door and entered with a loaded down tray.

"Thank Oz you are back with food, I am starving!" Galinda said and jumped up from her chair. Elphaba had to stifle a chuckle- everybody knew that Galinda could eat for a entire army. She never understood why it doesn't affected her.

"Elphaba I think it would be best if you stay in bed to eat," Nurse Clare said and went over to her night-table which had an additional table to fold onto the side and helped her to sit up and settle against the pillows. Both had a plate with pasta with a vegetable based sauce and a salad.

"Thank you, you do a very good job caring for me," Elphaba said.

"Oh there's nothing to thank for my dear. Now eat your dinner and remember the drinking. You should feel better after a good meal. We need to look after your wounds after you finished dinner. Just call us when you are ready." The nurse was satisfied that her charge had anything she needed for now and left again.

While Galinda attacked her pasta with gusto, Elphaba ate only sparingly, as Galinda was looking at her and saw this, the blond narrowed her eyes and planted herself in front of her roomie.

"Elphaba now listen to me. You need to eat! Your injuries require a lot of strength from your body and right now I can imagine that there is not much left. So please try to eat at least half of your dinner."

Elphaba sighed "You are right of course, it is just that the thought of the Doctor being here soon terrifies me. I know that he is not out to hurt me." She picked up her fork and began to eat again and tried to forget what would happen later. As Galinda saw that Elphaba at least tried to eat, she was satisfied and returned to her own dinner.

"Galinda, may I ask you something?"

"Sure Elphaba, what is it?"

"It's just that you are here since you found me in the rain and I wonder if your friends wouldn't miss you. I don't want you to miss out any fun you could have, it is the weekend after all."

"Elphaba, honestly I am sure that some of my friends will wonder where I am, but as I told you before: I feel the need to stay with you and don't want to be anywhere else. The fact that it is the weekend is even benefiting, because now I have time to be there for you." She didn't want to tell her about Jennica yet, because she was afraid that it would upset her friend even more.

Elphaba sighed "Okay if you say so, I will believe you. But you need to go to class on Monday, you can't miss them, the finals are soon."

"I don't want to talk about me going to class right now, we can discuss that later. Now let me bring the tray with our dishes to the nurse, I think they will come for you soon anyway." She got up and collected the dishes on the tray and left. Nurse Clare saw her walking down the hallway and took the tray to a gathering spot. "I see that she ate all of her lunch, that it very good."

"Well I had to nudge her a little, she is very nervous about Dr. Bradburn examining her again."

"Understandable. Let me inform the doctor that you finished dinner, we'd like to do the examination and the changing of the dressings as soon as possible. Just wait a moment while I go into his office."

She knocked on Dr. Bradburn's office door and went inside. After to minutes they came out.

"Galinda I want to ask your father if he would like to see Elphaba's injuries too. He is currently in a lab right here in the building. Do you think that Elphaba is can handle another new person?"

"I don't know but she has to meet him sooner or later," Galinda said, hoping that her roomie was okay with her decision.

"All right I will go to the lab and ask him to join us. Nurse would you please prepare the new dressings and the medicine in the meantime?"

"Of course Doctor."

"Very good, I will be back shortly." with that he was gone.

"I hope Elphaba is okay with my father being here," Galinda said and entered their room with the nurse.

"Elphaba, I am happy that you ate your dinner. Dr. Bradburn went to fetch Mr. Upland, I am sure that he wants to speak with you. I will prepare your fresh dressings in the meantime."

Elphaba was not sure if she wanted to see Galinda's father yet. "Okay I suppose that he will need some information from me," she said warily. Just then both men entered the room and greeted the girls. Elphaba looked at Timion and had an uneasy feeling, he reminded her of someone. _No Elphaba, he is Galinda's father, you are paranoid _she thought to herself.

Timion was very nervous about speaking with Elphaba. He hoped that she would not recognize him and was relieved that she didn't.

"Elphaba this is Timion Upland, Galinda's father," Dr. Bradburn introduced him.

"It is nice to meet you , I appreciate that you came," Elphaba said extending her hand. That movement caused a stab of pain in her arm and shoulder, but she hid it well.

"Hello Miss Thropp, it is nice to meet you too. I am sure that I can be of help with your special needs. I know that it must be hard to find someone who will belief that you are allergic to water."

Elphaba nodded in response. She was glad that he didn't seem to be repulsed by her skin color.

Galinda has been observing the initial meeting between her roomie and her father. She thought that she saw some fear in Elphaba's eyes at first, but the green girl seemed to relax after a moment.

"Daddy how is it going with your first oil?"

"It is fine my dear, I am positive that it will be ready in the morning as I said earlier." He turned his attention back at Elphaba. "Galinda showed me your oils already, so don't be afraid that I will use something that will harm you. But I need to ask you if you ever used a oil based cream before?"

"No never," Elphaba said. "I always used oils and nothing else."

"We used some to treat her burns," Dr. Bradburn said.

"Okay, now I know that I can include it for your treatment. I already know some good creams to help you feeling better. Now we should have a look at your wounds, are you ready Nurse Clare?

"Yes I am." She came over and gently lowered the gown from her shoulders. "We will tend to the burns on your shoulders first since they are the worst." She started to remove the old dressing but it didn't came off as easy as it should because parts of it stuck to the wound. Elphaba yelped as the nurse tried to get it off as gently as she could. Galinda took her hand and lithely stroked it with her thump.

"I am sorry Elphaba, it is not my intention to hurt you, but I need to remove the dressing. I will get some oil and try to loosen it." She went over to the cabinet and retrieved the bottle with mineral oil.

After she soaked the fabric she was able to remove it almost painless for the green girl.

As all parts were removed Doctor Bradburn and Timion came over and assessed the current situation.

There was a big amount of serum on the surface of the wounds, which caused the fabric to stick onto it. Some blisters formed again needed to be punctured again in the morning when they had the antiseptic oil. But what worried the doctor most was the deep colour around the wounds. The skin looked even more inflamed since the morning.

"Elphaba are you experiencing more pain than before?" Doctor Bradburn asked.

"A little, but it is tolerable. The wounds are throbbing all the time and almost every movement causes more pain, but I know that it's normal."

"Alright then, we will proceed like this morning for now, tomorrow we will treat the burns with the new creams and oils."

Nurse Clare quickly cleaned the wounds and coated them thickly with the cream. Elphaba flinched every time when the cream was applied and gripped Galinda's hand tighter. After they finished with her shoulders, they quickly repeated the procedure on her back.

"It's okay Elphaba, they are almost finished," Galinda said soothingly as Elphaba started to whimper.

"Okay we are done, I am sorry that all of this caused you more pain," Nurse Clare said and handed Elphaba her new medicine.

"We gave you one of the analgesics which would make you drowsy again, because you still need to sleep a lot in order to regain strength," Doctor Bradburn said. "Now we will leave you two alone, it is still early but a good sleep will be good for both of you. I think you know what I want to say Miss Galinda," he added, looking sternly at the blonde. Galinda blushed and nodded. Elphaba was curious about what the Doctor meant with his remark.

"I will return to the lab and experiment, I actually have some ideas," Timion said. He went over to his daughter and kissed her on her forehead. "Sleep well you two, I will see you in the morning."

"Good night Popsicle!" Elphaba raised an eyebrow as she heard Galinda calling her father like that, but regretted it when that movement caused a flash of pain on her face.

After the adults left Elphaba let out a sigh of relieve. "Galinda, I don't know how long I can stand all of the fussing. I am not used to it."

"I know Elphaba, but they just want to make sure that you are okay."

"What did the Doctor mean with 'You know what I want to say' regarding sleeping?"

"Uh... I tell you later, it is not very important right now," Galinda said and hoped that Elphaba would drop the subject. "I will go into the bathroom and freshen up, I am rather tired. Call me if you need anything while I'm gone.

Elphaba settled herself onto the pillows and closed her eyes. She felt the now familiar drowsiness and wondered how long it would take her to fall asleep this time.

Galinda bathed quickly and attended to necessities. When she came out of the bathroom, Elphaba was sound asleep. "Good night my friend, I hope your sleep is untroubled."

She slipped under her own covers and was also asleep in no time.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: *looks around the corner* Hello my dear followers. I am glad to say that my huge writers block seemed to be gone and I'm in better spirits now. I can't promise that it will never happen again, but I hope that I'll never need 4 months for a chapter again.**

**I want to thank Throppsicle for her beta reading and her advice, it helped a lot ;-) **

**Enjoy!**

x

It was late in the night when Galinda woke with a start, having an uneasy feeling. She sat up and thought that she heard a whimper coming from Elphaba. The blonde quietly got up and walked in the dim light of the room over to her roomie. As she came near her, she heard Elphaba whimper again.

"Oh no, not another nightmare!" she whispered and called Elphaba's name, hoping she would wake up. When the green girl didn't respond, Galinda lightly touched her shoulder to get her attention. She was shocked that Elphaba felt very, very warm and was shivering. Galinda gently touched her forehead. It was hot and covered with cold sweat. The blonde quickly put on the little lamp on the nightstand, reached for the alarm cord and pulled it.

"I hope Nurse will come quickly, this fever can't be a good sign," she mumbled and looked closer at Elphaba. She noticed that her face was angry red all over, not just her injured parts. Was the sweat burning her skin? Elphaba was still whimpering, shivering and slightly tossing in her sleep. Galinda was not sure if she should wipe the sweat away or not; she was afraid to hurt her roomie even more. Just then, Nurse Clare came in, followed by Doctor Bradburn. Galinda was surprised that both were here so quickly; it was three in the morning after all.

"Galinda dear, what is it?" Nurse Clare asked as she and the doctor hurried over to them.

"I woke up and heard Elphaba whimper, so I went to check on her. I thought that she was suffering from a nightmare and I touched her. It seems that she developed a fever during the night; she felt very warm," Galinda said with worry in her voice.

Both adults exchanged a significant glance and the nurse quickly put a hand onto Elphaba's forehead. She was very concerned when she felt that the green girl was indeed burning up. She also noticed that Elphaba's face was very sweaty and saw the angry red splotches that had formed all over it. All the while, Elphaba was still whimpering in her sleep and did not wake up.

"Oh dear she seems to indeed have a fever. And I am not sure, but it looks like her skin is very irritated by the sweat. We need to take her temperature immediately and check the rest of her body for more irritations. Would you please try and wake her?" Nurse Clare said.

"Of course Nurse," Galinda said and started to gently say Elphaba's name. Both adults waited near the bed and quietly conferred. After two or three minutes Elphaba groggily opened her eyes.

"Galinda?" she called, her voice was even more hoarse than before; she wasn't feeling well at all. Her whole body seemed to be on fire and her skin prickled all over.

"I'm right here with you. I am afraid that you developed a fever during the night. I alerted the nurse and doctor and they are here to check you over," Galinda said.

The nurse stepped into Elphaba's line of sight. "Hello Elphaba, I need to take your temperature. Is that okay with you?" The green girl nodded, not feeling well enough to even fuss about it. She barely noticed what was going on around her. After a few minutes, the nurse took the thermometer and looked even more alert after she jotted down the number. Doctor Bradburn looked at it too and his brow furrowed; the fever was very high and needed to be treated immediately. It seemed that they weren't able to avert an infection.

Galinda saw the looks on their faces and knew that something was indeed wrong. "Is the fever bad?" she asked the doctor.

"Yes, unfortunately the fever is very high and we need to treat it as soon as possible. Elphaba, we have to bathe you in order to get the sweat from your body, your skin seems to be very irritated by it. Nurse will attend to that task now," he said.

"I will go and see if your father is still in the lab, he told me that he would be there most of the night. Our biggest problem at the moment is how to cool her down," he said to Galinda.

"Oh I didn't think of that! You can't simply put her into a cold tub," Galinda said, shuddering at the thought of Elphaba immersed in water. "I am not surprised that my father is working all night, when he is on a mission, you can't stop him." Galinda smiled slightly; she always admired her father for the lengths that he went to to help others.

After the doctor left, Nurse Clare came over with a soft cloth in her hands. "Elphaba, I will carefully dry your skin with this cloth now. I hope that I don't hurt you in the process."

"I think it will be fine, please just make it stop!" Elphaba whimpered groggily. She just wanted to go back to sleep again and feel no additional pain. Galinda was a little surprised by Elphaba's change of demeanor; normally the green girl never showed any sign of weakness.

"Alright my dear, I'll try to get the sweat off as quick as possible." The nurse lowered the hospital nightgown and revealed more angry red and green skin. Galinda blushed and turned slightly away as she saw Elphaba's body so exposed, but the green girl didn't seemed to notice the delicate situation she was in. Nurse Clare gently wiped the sweat from Elphaba's skin and tried to be as quick as possible, because she began to shiver more and more throughout the process.

X

Dr. Bradburn hurried up to his private lab, hoping desperately that Mr. Upland would be able to help them. He was at a loss with the treatment of his patient now. He knocked on the door and entered after he heard a soft reply. Timion was busy mixing something and as he saw the concerned look on the doctor's face, he knew that something must be very wrong.

"Dr. Bradburn, is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid no, Elphaba developed a high fever during the night and we don't know how to help her besides treating her with the common medicines. We need to cool her body down, but you know where the problem lies..." the doctor replied with an resigned tone. He hated being so helpless.

"Oh dear, we all were afraid that she would get an infection. Actually I have a solution for the bathing problem. Highly concentrated peppermint oil has very good cooling properties when applied to the skin. It was recently discovered and tested on very young patients with fever who refused to get into a cold tub."

"Peppermint oil, how intriguing!" the doctor said. He was very glad that Mr. Upland seemed to know so much about herbs and their properties.

"I already prepared some, because I was relatively sure that it would be needed. The two bottles of oil on the table over there are both ready," Timion pointed to a table on his left. "The bigger one contains the antiseptic cleaning oil, the other the sterilized peppermint oil."

The doctor was very surprised that there were already two oils ready to be used. "I don't know how to thank you for what you have done for Elphaba so far. I never expected you to be so quick; you must have worked without a pause since I left you in the evening."

"Oh there is no need to thank me, when I am on a mission, nothing can stop me," Timion laughed. "Now take these oils to where they are needed. I hope that you are better able to help Elphaba now."

With that Dr. Bradburn took the bottles and quickly hurried out of the lab.

X

Back in Elphaba's room, the nurse was still gently drying the green girl's skin. Galinda held onto one of Elphaba's hands, but looked discreetly away with a slight blush, as the nurse was drying the intimate parts. Elphaba still didn't seem to notice much about what was going on around her. Galinda thought that it might be the best for the situation.

"I'm almost finished," Nurse Clare said while attending to one of the legs. After she had dried every part of Elphaba's skin off, the nurse went over to the cabinet and retrieved some new medicine. She gently helped Elphaba to sit up and drink the pills down. After five minutes, the doctor came back and quickly went over to them. Galinda saw the two bottles in his hands and sighed a breath of relief; her father was a marvel!

"I have good news! Mr. Upland provided me with an oil, which should help cooling Elphaba's body down."

"I'm very glad that he is able to help us," the nurse said and accepted the bottle with peppermint oil from Dr Bradburn. She looked intrigued as she read the label. She turned to Elphaba and noticed that she was asleep again. "Poor dear, the fever is taking its toll, but it is very good that she is asleep, now I can apply the oil without stressing her further."

After the peppermint oil was thoroughly smoothed over the parts of Elphaba's body that weren't bandaged, Nurse Clare carefully put the nightgown back in place and covered the green girl with the thick comforter.

"Now we have to wait and see if the peppermint oil is working on her. I want you to try and sleep too Galinda, we will look after your roommate regularly," the doctor said.

"I will try, I don't think that I have an option to say no," Galinda sighed and lay down on her cot.

"Good girl," Nurse Clare said and turned off the lights.

Soon fatigue overtook the little blonde and she drifted of into a fitful sleep. As the nurse came in to check on Elphaba who was sleeping soundly, she noticed that Galinda was tossing and turning in her sleep. She went over and tried to wake her. Galinda woke up with a start, looking at the nurse with a frightened look.

"It's okay dear; everything is alright. I woke you because you seemed to be dreaming."

"I did, it was awful! I dreamed that I didn't find Elphaba in time and... that... that she was..." Galinda stammered and burst into tears. The nurse was not surprised at the outburst. She sat down on the cot and held the girl in a motherly way. For close to ten minutes, Galinda cried into the older woman's shoulder. Nurse Clare handed her a handkerchief and Galinda accepted it gratefully.

"Are you feeling better?" the nurse asked while rising from the edge of the cot to get some water.

"Yes I am, I'm glad that you were there for me. That dream was horrible!"

"I was afraid that something like that might occur. Please feel free to talk about your fears; I am known on campus as the gentle, granny nurse," she chuckled. She had seen many things over the years, but Elphaba's case was very different, as she felt far more protective over her and her roommate than usual. Galinda assured her that she would talk if the need arose and this satisfied the elder woman for once.

"I will check on Elphaba's temperature now, I hope that it is not higher than two hours before."

She managed to get the temperature without waking the green girl and was relieved that, for the moment, her fever had not gotten worse.

"Is she okay?" Galinda asked, her voice laced with concern and a hint of panic.

The nurse sighed inwardly. "Galinda, please listen to me. If your friend were in immediate danger, we would watch her constantly and would never leave you alone in this room. Please don't make yourself crazy right now. The peppermint oil seems to work, as her skin feels a little bit cooler to the touch than before and she isn't sweating too much at the moment. I am really concerned about your health and you know it. I will give you two options: You promise me to go to sleep again while I'm watching over both of you, or I feel the need to give you a sleep aid, but I am pretty sure that this isn't the way you want it, am I correct?"

"You are right, I have to sleep and I really don't want to get sick too." With that she settled herself down onto her pillows again and tried to clear her mind. She didn't mind that the nurse was present; she had her reasons to watch over her. Thankfully she fell asleep after ten minutes and stayed that way for a couple more hours.

A young nurse was assigned to look after them while Dr. Bradburn and his head nurse were able to get some much needed sleep.

x

Timion spent the whole night in Dr. Bradburn's private lab, carefully measuring and mixing a variety of oils and other things he thought might help Elphaba. He knew that he had to think unconventional in her case; the standard treatments were absolutely inappropriate, not to mention dangerous and life threatening for her. Timion was very glad that he could count himself among the sort of scientist who worked to help others. He had to learn the hard way that there was an opposite side as well.

"I hope that my experiments with different components will help her in the long run and I'm sure that she will benefit from the new oils I mixed for her," he said quietly. It was past seven and he was nearly finished with his latest project, a poultice with antiseptic and pain relieving properties. After he was finished, he stepped back from the lab table and surveyed his work. The doctor would have some good supplies to hold the infection at bay and hopefully help the healing process along. Timion collected all of the bottles and tins and put them in a box to take to the infirmary.

He had lost all track of time and was surprised that it was already eight 'o clock. As he entered the infirmary, he was greeted by Nurse Nikota and was told that the doctor would be there in just a bit.

"Thank you, I want to give him the supplies for Miss Elphaba's treatment. Do you know anything about her actual condition?"

"She has been sleeping all night as far as I know. Nurse Clare told me that they want to check on her soon."

"Okay, I will explain the new oils and mixtures to the doctor. I hope that all of it works as it should," Timion said and sat down on a chair. Dr. Bradburn arrived after twenty minutes.

"Good morning Mr. Upland. I thought that you would be in your room in the guest quarters by now."

"Good morning as well. I'm planning on it, but I wanted to show you what I have created in addition to the two oils I gave you earlier."

"Very well, let's go into my office then," the doctor said and soon Timion had explained everything to a slightly stunned Dr. Bradburn, who had never expected that the men before him would be able to do so much overnight.

"I think we now have many options to treat Elphaba; only time can tell how her system will respond to them. We will go and check on her, my head nurse must be here by now. I suggest that you get some rest. I will inform your daughter that you will be here later on."

Timion agreed and after he briefly greeted Nurse Clare, he made his way across campus to his room.

x

Galinda groggily opened her eyes. She saw daylight shining into the room and Nurse Clare, who was quietly preparing something on the other side of the room. The nurse noticed that she was awake and came over to her.

"Good morning Galinda, I'm very glad that you got more sleep. And before you ask, Elphaba didn't wake up while you were asleep." she said as she noticed Galinda looking over to Elphaba.

"Good morning. Thankfully I had no more nightmares," Galinda sighed and got up.

"Is it time for her checkup again?"

"Yes, I was preparing the new supplies your father brought us not to long ago. He went to his room to rest and said that he will be back here in a few hours."

"He was up all night, wasn't he?

"After what I heard yes. It appears to me that he is a very passionate man."

"He is, as I said before, when he is working on a project, nothing can stop him from working, even at night," Galinda said, her pride in her father evident in her voice. She collected her last set of clean clothes and went to the bathroom to freshen up. As she looked in the mirror she was shocked to see that she was rather pale and had really dark shadows under her eyes. No wonder that everyone was concerned about her. Under normal circumstances that situation would induce a stroke in the always perfect, fresh- looking blonde, but not today. Today she didn't care about how bad she looked. _If my classmates could see me, they would think that I have gone completely mad_ Galinda thought and chuckled in spite of her self.

She heard Dr. Bradburn's voice out in the room and quickly finished fixing her hair.

"Hello Galinda, we have been waiting for you because we think that you should try and wake your friend again," the doctor said.

"I think so too. I hope that she will not be afraid of you anymore because it breaks my heart," Galinda said and went to sit beside Elphaba's bed again. It took over five minutes before Elphaba began to stir slightly after Galinda called her name repeatedly.

"Galinda?" Elphaba whispered, her eyes still closed. Galinda was not sure if she was completely awake.

"Yes Elphaba, I'm still here with you. Please wake up for me, the doctor is here again."

The green girl opened her eyes with effort. She had difficulties with focusing on anything, her head was hurting and she felt very hot. After a minute, she was able to see clearer and looked directly into Galinda's concerned eyes. "Galinda, please make it stop, it hurts," Elphaba whimpered.

"Where does it hurt?" Galinda asked, trying to sound calm as she exchanged a worried look with the doctor and nurse.

"My head, it feels like bursting, please make it stop!"

"It's okay Elphaba, the doctor and nurse are here to help you. See, they are right here on the other side of your bed."

"Elphaba, we will give you something for your headache immediately. You still have a very high fever. I will examine you to see what we have to do now," the doctor said and told the nurse which medication was required. He gently felt her skin and saw that the loss of fluid was increasing; they had to do something quickly.

"Elphaba you need to try and drink something. I know it is very uncomfortable for you to sit up now, but we have no other choice," Doctor Bradburn said. The nurse came over with the medicine and gently helped Elphaba to sit up. The green girl felt very dizzy as soon as she was semi - reclined and just wished that she could lie down again. The nurse handed her a glass of cider, but Elphaba's hands were shaking too much to hold it alone. Galinda had tears in her eyes as she gently steadied her hand and helped her to drink down the pill. Elphaba looked thankfully at Galinda. "Thank you for still being here," Elphaba said quietly.

"That's what friends are for Elphaba," Galinda simply replied. "Please try to drink some more."

She had to help her again and was pretty sure that he only reason that Elphaba was not overly uncomfortable with the situation was that she had no power left at all. Elphaba managed to empty the glass but she started to feel nauseous as soon as she started on the second.

"I don't think that I can drink any more, it makes me feel nauseous."

"Oh dear, I was afraid that this would happen. Milk will work too, it will hopefully soothe your stomach," the nurse said and poured some milk into another glass. Thankfully the nausea eased after Elphaba sipped some milk. The doctor and nurse both sighed a breath of relieve.

"Alright Elphaba, we will check your temperature now and then we have to bathe you again with the peppermint oil. Mr. Upland told us that it has cooling properties. We can attend to your wounds later on, the treatment of your fever and the infection is more important right now. Mr. Upland provided us with more supplies for you and he will be here in a few hours to assist us," the doctor explained.

Nurse Clare helped her to lie back down and took her temperature. They were not happy to see that the fever was as high as before.

"The fever is not getting worse for the moment but we need to get it down. Nurse will apply the peppermint oil again, only time can tell if it is enough. I will be back in a few hours when Mr. Upland is here again to assist me."

After the doctor had left the nurse immediately started to apply a good amount of peppermint oil on Elphaba's upper body. The green girl felt like a giant candy cane but had to admit that the oil was indeed very cooling. She didn't know that it had cooling properties either. Although it made her feel a little bit better, Elphaba felt very uncomfortable with the nurses' touch. She was not accustomed to it, expecting rough hands and pinching instead of gentle touches. Elphaba flinched several times during the process and both Galinda and the nurse noticed it. Nurse Clare was sure that it wasn't from accidentally touching her injured body parts. Elphaba was wondering why she could accept that Galinda was holding her hand more readily. _Somehow I know that she won't hurt me._

While she applied the oil, the nurse was very glad to notice that Elphaba's skin was not as irritated as before. But she also noticed that her patient grew more and more uncomfortable the longer she was giving attention to her, so she quickly completed her task.

"Alright Elphaba, I am finished for now. Does the pill for your headache work?"

"Yes, a little, but I would be glad if I can go back to sleep now," Elphaba said, her tiredness evident in her voice.

"Of course my dear, but we have to wake you up in an hour, so that you can have a drink again. The fever increased the loss of fluid and we are afraid that you are getting dehydrated."

"Alright with me, as long as I can sleep," Elphaba said and close her eyes. She was asleep after only two minutes. Galinda sighed "I hope that she will get better soon. It breaks my heart to see her so vulnerable."

"We are trying to get the infection under control as soon as possible. But injuries like hers need time to heal completely. Now I suggest that you go over to the cafeteria and eat a good breakfast. You don't need to stay here all of the time. I think Elphaba is comfortable enough with me by now."

"You are right; I should leave her alone at some point. I will go and have breakfast and a nice soak in the tub I think."

"That sounds good to me, now scoot!" The nurse smiled and followed Galinda out of the door.


End file.
